Futures
by fairyfan777
Summary: Complete! After Laxus becomes a father, his grandfather moves in to enjoy the rest of his life watching his grandson trying to raise a family that includes twin boys.
1. Chapter 1

Sometimes, Makarov enjoyed the simple things in life, like riding on the train with his grandson, even if said grandson was already a grown man. Their relationship had seen good days, bad days, and everything in between.

He'd invited Laxus on a whim to visit the grave of Yuri Dreyar. The answer was always no with Laxus, but the younger man had been pensive lately, and quiet like something was heavy on his heart. He accepted the invitation, and Makarov was happy just to spend time with him.

At the moment, Laxus face was crunched up a little as he sat between his grandfather and the window.

"You still get motion sick?" Makarov chuckled.

Laxus crossed his arms and shot back a sulking glare reminiscent of his somewhat troubled teen years. "You know why."

There was momentary relief for the motion sickness at the next station, but then the men felt the presence at the same moment. Jose Porla stepped into the compartment they were in, seemed startled, and checked his ticket number. "Of all the things...! You two!" He went on a long rant, complaining about his ticket number, his bad luck, and his decision to catch the late train. The rant went on even when the train started and Laxus' sense of tolerance vanished with the next wave of nausea.

He narrowed his eyes, and Jose felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. "You're annoying me," he uttered in a calm, still monotone that threatened great violence.

"That's some attitude to take with a former saint wizard," Jose answered as he sat in his seat. "Doesn't your kind have motion sickness?"

Makarov gave him a threatening glare. "I don't."

Laxus' closed his eyes as his stomach turned. "Gramps, don't sweat. One move and I will blow this train off the tracks and fry him like an egg. I might do it anyway. I'm bored."

Jose shut his mouth, because he watched Laxus throw Jura to the ground and the young man seemed like he'd rather fight than sit on the train anyhow.

He could remember back when Makarov's guild really only had Gildarts. The other wizards were mediocre and the rest of the guild was made up of children that were broken and bruised to the core. When he'd fired the first shot and instigated the guild war between Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail, he still considered Makarov's guild to be comprised primarily of weakness.

These days, Phantom Lord—his entire legacy—wasn't even worthy to be mentioned among Fairy Tail's greatest achievements. It was just the first guild war and the warm up round for those orphans who had become such a force that they could declare 'war' on whomever the hell they pleased, and then crush whoever the target was.

At the next stop, Laxus said, "Get off."

And he did.

After Jose got off the train, Laxus slumped over in his seat more from the motion sickness and eventually fell asleep until they got to their destination.

The grave was only a couple of miles from the train station, so they walked together.

Makarov looked back over his shoulder. "Ten years ago, Jose told me that he believed the Balam Alliance would usurp the authority of the government and that by this time, we'd be living in the age of dark magic. Do you see now? When you were younger and people said our guild was weak…they couldn't see what I could see."

Laxus nodded. "We were all young together. We sharpened each other as we grew. We fought for and with each other, we struggled, and we grew strong."

They continued together like this, talking about the guild and the nation, and Makarov found his grandson had grown almost immeasurably. Laxus had inherited his heart and his vision to make an impact in the world.

When they got to the grave, Makarov placed flowers on the grave and they were silent for a moment.

"Gramps…" Laxus uttered in a quiet, unsteady voice.

"What is it?" Makarov looked up.

"I am going to be a father."

Time seemed to stand still for a moment, and Makarov suddenly understood why he'd been so pensive lately. It was a lot for anyone to take in, especially the first time. Laxus kept his personal life _personal_ , even from him.

Makarov smiled gently then and said, "How do you feel?"

"I feel a lot of things. It happened accidentally, so she cried when she told me, but I didn't feel unhappy about it when I really let it sink in," he explained.

"Who is 'she?'" Makarov asked, probing at Laxus' impenetrably private personal life. Laxus never, ever, ever, ever allowed his dating habits to be known by anyone. Not the Thunder Tribe, not him, nobody. Makarov knew at one point Laxus was having a lot of reckless sex with women he didn't know while he was on jobs, but there hadn't been any such news in a long time. "Are you in a relationship? Will you tell me that much?"

"Gramps, are you asking me if I knocked up some woman during a one-nighter? I can't even believe that's your first question," Laxus replied in a voice that was somehow amused and irritated at the same time. "I stopped that nonsense a long time ago. I've only had one girl for the past year."

"Is it anyone I know? A wizard?"

Laxus said, "No, she's ordinary, I guess, and extraordinary also. We've been together for over a year. She doesn't mind that I come and go, and she's always happy to see me. She's a good girl."

"She makes you happy?"

He nodded.

Makarov was elated to hear that Laxus had somehow managed to build a relationship despite all that had happened in his life. Ivan had a child with a woman wizard for the purpose of producing a strong child and had scrawny little Laxus. They were never together, never happy. Laxus was left behind by their selfishness.

The older man looked up at him proudly. His voice cracked a little, "I have always hoped that you would have the courage to love someone even though all that happened. You don't know how much I have worried about you, hoping you could really live and enjoy the things that are important. Having friends, falling in love, having a baby… You inherited a sorry lot in life, and nothing that happened was your fault. But you have grown, and you have overcome every challenge that has faced you, and you have soared so high above all that was against you. I am so proud of you."

Laxus felt tears sting his eyes at the sight of his grandfather weeping out of sheer pride and happiness for him. His mouth curled into a little grin. "She has a little bump, Gramps."

"Oh? Do you know how far along she is?"

"Three months."

"Are you hoping for a son or daughter?"

His grandson seemed almost intimidated by the question at first but finally said, "I want a son."

Makarov wiped his eyes although he remained no less weepy. "One of my greatest desires has been that I want to see you become a father. When you hold that baby for the first time, I think a part of you that has always hurt will be healed. You didn't have an opportunity to experience true love from a father from the perspective of a son, but when you're the father, you'll be able to experience it. I think some questions in your mind will be answered, and you'll have closure where things are yet undone."

The moment meant so much to both of them, because their struggles together had been for the duration of Laxus' entire life. He'd started off in last place with so many disadvantages, and as his life went on, fate twisted and turned him this way and that way, but in the end, Makarov could always see the light in his grandson's eyes.

After they'd both calmed a bit, Laxus looked at the tombstone and asked, "What about him? Was he a good father?"

"He was a great father. He traveled a lot as a wizard. But when he would come home, he loved me and he did his best. I know as a wizard you probably wonder how you can be a good dad when you travel sometimes for months at a time, but you can. Love your family the best way that you can," Makarov said.

Laxus nodded as he committed the words to his heart. "That's one of the many things I worry about."

"If you're scared or worried or if you have doubts, it's okay. Every man who is real man is at least a little afraid. It's a journey to become a father. It's a lot to go through, but you'll find yourself as a father as you go along. You'll find so much strength inside of yourself, Laxus. And this fresh sense of amazement."

They stayed there for a while longer and talked until the sun started to set and Makarov turned back toward the road. "Let's head back."

"Gramps…"

"Hm?"

"Thanks."


	2. Chapter 2

Two months later, Makarov was at his grandson's home, as had become his custom. When Laxus was out on a job, he'd visit the expecting mother every day. Usually, they'd have either breakfast or dinner; she would cook and they would sit together and talk about the baby, life, and, of course, Laxus.

He was sitting on a chair at the kitchen table, watching her chop onions when he sensed a presence approaching. He smiled as he took a sip of lemonade and waited patiently for the moment. He knew that Laxus must have already sensed his presence also. His speed of approach picked up as he got closer, and the lightning dragon slayer entered so silently she didn't hear him.

"Hey Babe. I'm home."

She ran and jumped into his arms, and they kissed with her feet dangling off the floor as he held her hips. He looked tired and he had bandages around his forehead, but when his eyes widened in amazement. "You're getting big. You've been feeling well?"

"Mhmm."

Laxus looked over his shoulder. "Gramps? How's it going? You looking after my girl?"

"Of course. We're family. I'll leave you two then."

When he started to get up, Laxus shook his head. "You might as well stay. It's dinner time. I'm hungry. What's for dinner? Smells good."

His grandfather agreed, thankful to have the opportunity have dinner with his grandson and his girl. He was the only one that Laxus had invited into his life like this, much like Makarov once opened his home and his life to Laxus when he was a little boy.

Laxus went to shower and change while dinner was cooking and then they had a meal together as a family. It was the first that the two men had in many years, since before Ivan had been kicked out of the guild. Back then, it had just been Makarov and Laxus, and they'd eat simple things his grandfather had time to cook whenever they were at home.

It was good for them to see the other sides of one another again, comfortable at home.

Laxus discussed his job, he and Makarov talked about the guild, they all talked about the baby and the family, but one thing was not explained.

"How did you get those bandages on your head if you didn't have to fight on your job?" _she_ asked, eyes narrowing marginally.

Makarov watched in fascination as his grandson squirmed a little in fear, looking away.

"I ran into Gildarts on the job in the middle of the forest. We talked for a while, and then I don't know what happened but somehow I had a Natsu moment," Laxus confessed.

"Oh? Is he still that far above you?" Makarov asked, wildly amused by the fact that his grandson started a fight with the older wizard. Laxus loved a good fight, but he normally judged very well who could or could not defeat him.

His grandson seemed distant for a moment as he had a flashback of Gildarts' knee pressing into the base of his skull. "Hn."

The elder decided to feed into the moment. "You know, you got to be more careful now that you have a little one on the way."

The glare he received from _her_ said, "I told you so."

Halfway through the meal, Laxus sensed her tense up. "What's wrong?"

She stood next to him, and said, "Give me your hand, Honey."

"Hm?" He gazed up at her in question as pulled her blouse up over her belly with one hand and guided his callused palm to a certain point. She kept her hand over his as he seemed to melt in amazement at the sensation of feeling the baby kick for the first time.

Makarov watched his grandson in _this moment_. This was his once troubled child, his delinquent, his burden, his heartbreak, his disappointment growing up to be a good man, a loving father, an excellent leader, his hope, and his joy in these later years of his life.

Laxus stayed lost in wonder for quite a while and then looked up. "What kind of magic is this?"

"The only kind that really matters," his grandfather answered.

"C'mere, Gramps. Feel it."

And a few seconds later, Makarov felt a flurry of movements from his unborn great-grandchild.

They eventually went back to dinner, and once they finished, Laxus sent his girlfriend upstairs to get ready for bed, promising to do the dishes, which Makarov found oddly unbelievable. It was just hard to imagine Laxus Dreyar washing dishes, but then again, even a wizard had to have some kind of level of domestic normalcy.

"It's nice of you to help out so she can rest," Makarov commented.

Laxus, who poured far more soap than was necessary into a sink of bubbly water, gave him a look of incredulousness. "Gramps, I haven't been home in a month. I'll spare you the details, but no one in this house is getting any rest tonight."

"Oh, I guess you have been gone a while. You don't…I guess that's not my business."

The blond rinsed the dishes one by one and put them in the soapy water. "She's a good girl, Gramps. I was her first, and she has a good family she left to stay here with me. She puts up with me coming and going. It's never been hard for me not to cheat."

He started to wash the dishes, and his grandfather joined in the task with some drying towels.

Makarov nodded in understanding. "Most wizards have a very difficult time building a life outside of magic. Going off on jobs is hard on relationships and families. You've done well. This house is peaceful."

Laxus scrubbed a dish a little too hard and it shattered. "Oops."

" _Honey, did you break another dish?"_ a voice called from upstairs.

"No, Babe," he called back before vaporizing the dish with lightning and washing the glass particles down the sink.

Laxus looked up at his grandfather. "Look, I break a lot of stuff around the house accidentally. I just get rid of anything I break because I don't want to hear about being such a brute in the house."

"You two are quite comical, you know. So, the baby has family on the other side?"

Laxus nodded. "Yeah."

"You get along?"

His grandson sighed a little. "Her parents wanted us to break up and stop shacking up for the longest time, but once she got pregnant, they became supportive. They want us to get married so the baby isn't born out of wedlock. They're church people. You know what I mean?"

"Oh? Are you considering marriage?"

He smirked a little. "No. Women tend not to put up with Dreyar men too long."

"This is your life, Laxus, and you have to live it according to your own dreams and conviction. I can't say anything about marriage, but I know you've come a long way on your own and I believe you can make it and raise a family that isn't missing any pieces whether or not you get married."

Laxus absorbed this wisdom with a thoughtful expression as he handed another dish off to his grandfather. "What if I have a daughter and she meets someone like me someday?"

Makarov answered quickly and without hesitation, "You fry the bastard and I'll get rid of the body. We'll tell her he changed his mind and decided to join the travelling circus."

His grandson let out a short laugh. "What if I have a son and he turns out like me?"

"I'd be really proud, but I guess that's a double-standard," he replied, "Your kid is going to screw up and make mistakes throughout life. Some small, some so big they change their life forever. You job is to show your child the right path to walk on. Their job is to choose to walk on that path. You turned out all right, you know."

When they finished the dishes, and Makarov was getting ready to go home, his grandson said, "There's something else, Gramps…"

"What is it?"

Laxus looked right into his eyes. "You're too old to be staying by yourself."

Makarov felt instantly insulted. "You want me to move into an old persons' home so you can lead the guild?"

"Come stay with us."

The old man's heart skipped a few beats. "Laxus…"

"We went through too damn much to keep living like we're still that fucked up family. Everyone should be together under one roof. Besides, you're getting older, and I don't know how much time we have left together, you and me. But let's make the most of it," Laxus declared.

Makarov really hadn't thought such a thing was possible, not even a little bit. He hadn't even had the nerve to pray that he could spend his last years living in peace with his family.

Then to make it seem like it wasn't what it was, the younger man added, "Besides, if you're here, she won't be alone with the baby. You can help me look after them since I'm gone a lot."

The patriarch was almost crushed by a humble kind of joy. "That I can certainly do. That's what family is for. This family did go through too damn much. Ivan chose not to go through that with us, but you and I certainly went through some hard times. We endured all of it. If we can be made whole as a family, it was worth everything."

Laxus' expression softened again. "You don't have to be so sentimental."

Makarov fought the urge to burst into tears and embrace his grandson. "Laxus, this is us, you and me, winning the longest, hardest battle of our lives, isn't it?"

"It's to be expected. Losing doesn't run in our blood."

 **Please Review!**


	3. Chapter 3

It was 3:43 am when Makarov awoke to a knock on his door. When he slid from the sheets and put on his robe and slippers, he already knew.

The baby was over a week overdue, and the Dreyar house had been waiting with bated breath for birth. For the past two days, his grandson had been going down the list he found in a book of ways to cause labor to start, from walking to feeding the mother spicy food, all to know avail.

The past few months had been some of the best of all their lives. There were so many little memories that the patron of the family had reflected on from time to time: catching his grandson talking to his unborn child, or watching him decorate the nursery with his girl. They were young and in love and about to have a baby, so his grandson was happy.

Makarov opened the door and found his grandson standing there, wide-awake with an expression of happy excitement. "It's time?"

"Y-Yeah...You'll stay with her while I go get the midwife?" he half-way stammered.

"Of course."

Laxus used lightning to teleport, which Makarov found to be a little unnecessary, but he could remember how he felt on the edge of becoming a father that night so many years before.

When he returned with the midwife, he and his grandfather sat outside the master bedroom in the living room while the midwife conducted an exam. Makarov observed his grandson carefully; Laxus was breathing a little hard, his eyes were strangely wide, and he kept wiping his sweaty hands on his pants.

"Nervous?" he teased.

"Fuck off, Gramps," he said with a little nervous grin.

Makarov chuckled. "It won't be long. You'll be a father in a few hours."

Laxus swallowed nervously. "I'm ready."

"No one is ready."

The midwife came out. "You can go in, Dad."

Makarov did not see Laxus for twelve hours, but the midwife came and went wordlessly, and as the hours dragged on, Makarov noticed worry on her brow.

Laxus emerged at last with a somewhat serious look on his face.

"What the hell is going on?"

His grandson shook his head. "I think something is wrong and the midwife doesn't want to say, because it's serious. What the fuck can I do? Sit there and watch. That's all. Get some towels for the blood."

Laxus disappeared again and cut through the living room without saying a word ten hours later.

It felt like it went on forever, and Makarov was starting to get scared once they passed a certain point. Time just ticked on while he sat in the living room listening to the mother cry and occasionally scream.

Laxus came out shortly after the forty-eight hour mark passed and slammed the door behind him. His whole body was shaking, and he looked tired and terrified. For a second, Makarov was worried he was going to run away, but he couldn't begin to guess what his grandson's mental state was at that point.

"What's going on?"

Laxus sat in a chair and curled up, hugging his legs to his chest. "It's starting to smell dead in there..."

The midwife came out, apparently looking for him. "You have to listen to what I'm saying."

"I refuse."

Makarov asked, "What's happening?"

The midwife said, "The mother isn't able to have the baby. We can save the baby. Either way, the mother doesn't have much of a chance."

"Go away. Get in there. Do something for fuck's sake," the younger man quietly said.

This was, to Makarov, the most bitter, cruel outcome imaginable. It was true that childbirth was a dangerous moment in a woman's life, but they were both young and healthy and nothing had gone wrong during the pregnancy.

Somehow, in a fairly short time, the excitement for new life had been stripped away and replaced with the horror of complicated and tragic birth.

The midwife went back to the room, and Makarov sat down on the ottoman that was in front of the chair Laxus was curled up in. The woman had made it painfully clear to Laxus.

"Talk to me, grandson."

Laxus weakly explained, "It's two problems. The baby is turned some kind of way. And her body didn't open up all the way it was supposed to. One of those things would be complicated. Both is deadly."

"How's Mom?"

He broke eye contact. "She'll probably bleed to death eventually. That bitch says there's no hope there. She could remove the baby, but then the mother would die immediately. The nerve of her to ask if she can cut..."

Makarov had never seen Laxus look so sad, so desperate, so powerless, or so broken. "It's not your fault."

"I put that baby in her, didn't I?"

The situation was awful, and it was hard, and it was unfair, and in such a short time, the place in the sun that Laxus had found was in jeopardy. Makarov had nothing to say to make it better, no advice, no words that might encourage him.

When Makarov put a hand on his grandson's shoulder, the mighty Laxus Dreyar broke down and sat there sobbing out of frustration and agony and crippling fear.

"Is it against the rules for me to be happy?!" he hissed through clenched teeth.

And then, Makarov felt it. The air practically trembled as he steeled himself. In an instant, he was _himself_. He uncurled his body and stood up just as the midwife came back.

"Have you made a decision?" she asked.

Laxus shoved her onto the couch. "Listen, bitch. I don't make compromises. I always win, and I can't tell you how many times I've been told I didn't have any hope. So you can say whatever words you feel are right, but you will always be wrong. I live according to my own rules."

The dragon slayer shut the door, and locked it behind him so that he was alone with the mother.

Makarov and the midwife waited for the next two hours. Laxus was like a general, encouraging and pushing his girlfriend over this impossible hurdle. His grandfather heard the girl plead and say she couldn't anymore, and he would growl that she wasn't allowed to quit. He was yelling, she was crying, and it got more and more intense.

The midwife stared at the door. "He's going to kill her."

And then, a tiny cry.

"I-Impossible!"

The door unlocked and Laxus gestured for the midwife. "You. Get in here."

It was fifteen minutes later that Laxus emerged from the bedroom with a bundle cradled in his arms. The hell had lifted from his eyes, replaced by the glow of someone who just won a difficult battle. There was joy in them that screamed that he was currently in one of the highest highs that life had to offer.

"I have a son," he whispered.

Makarov held his hands out and Laxus came and sat next to him, handing the baby over with the gentlest care. "How's mom?"

"She's weak but she's going to be all right. She already passed out," he answered.

Makarov held the baby carefully with one arm and unwrapped him to examine him. The baby had tufts of blond hair growing in different directions, thick eyebrows, gold eyes, and long eyelashes. Tears gathered in his eyes as he smiled. "Hey there, little one. I've been looking forward to meeting you since I found out you were on your way. I'm your great-gramps. No matter what, I'm going to be here for you, hear me?"

Then, Makarov looked up. "This baby looks just like you."

"Poor thing," Laxus joked, "Good thing he's a lot cuter."

His grandfather smiled as he played with the newborn's toes. "You were a cute kid. You didn't get big and ugly until puberty."

There was a scream from the bedroom and fear washed over Laxus again in an instant. "Hold him, Gramps."

He ran back and there was a commotion of confusion. Something was wrong with mother, and Makarov prayed as he held his great-grandson to his chest. For the night to end in tragedy after all that had happened was devastating to even think about. He wondered if the mother giving birth with her issue might have caused a serious injury.

Once again, the commotion collapsed into peace with the sound of a baby's cry.

Makarov looked down at the baby in his arms, and realized what had just happened.

When Laxus reemerged ten minutes later, he had yet another bundle. "Twins..." he mumbled.

"I really hope you have a little girl wrapped in that blanket."

"Sorry, Gramps. Twin boys."

Laxus gave him a tired smile and traded babies with his grandfather who noted they looked just alike and both like their father except the younger had slightly lighter hair and blue eyes. "I'm a dad..."

"How does it feel?"

"Couldn't begin to describe it."

They sat together for a while, just watching the newborn twins, but when the midwife left, the elder said, "You look tired as hell. Leave these little rascals with me for a little bit and go lay down down."

"We're breastfeeding, so every hour and a half, you can wake us up so they can eat," he said.

Makarov gave his grandson an unamused glare. "Neither you nor your father starved during infancy. You were a fat little baby. A real porker. And it wasn't because I didn't know when to feed you."

Laxus smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I read a lot of books."

"Go to sleep already, Fatty."

Makarov watched the newborns and kept them on schedule for two breastfeeding sessions, which was actually quite an amusing challenge with twins. Watching Laxus juggle screaming babies in an exhausted, frazzled state pretty much topped the list of things he never wanted to forget.

He and his grandson switched off, and he slept while the new father looked after the twins.

Makarov awoke fully rested and found Laxus was in the living room asleep in the dark while the two little ones were laying on a blanket on the giant ottoman across from him. The twins were snuggled up tight and asleep while their father slept upright with his arms crossed in the chair, as if he'd literally watched over them until he lost consciousness.

The door to the bedroom was open and he could see their mother face down asleep on the bed, still recovering which was a little difficult since she had to wake up frequently to feed the babies.

The old man almost giggled at the sight. "New parents..."

He made bacon, eggs, and toast, poured some orange juice, and served them. She accepted graciously, but Laxus, in a half-asleep state, mumbled, "It's time for them to eat again?"

"It's time for you to eat, grandson of mine. You haven't eaten in days," he answered.

.Laxus attacked the food like it had offended him. "I forgot."

Makarov watched him in amusement, and then remembered what he'd wanted to discuss. "Did you see the mark?"

Laxus nodded nervously. Both of the boys had a lightning birthmark over their heart and random scales in different places. "Gramps, I have no idea. But one of them sneezed a minuscule amount of electricity earlier and the other was completely unbothered by it. I must have passed on more than what I was born with."

Makarov shook his head in disbelief at the twins again. "I still can't believe there were two babies all along. Wouldn't they have heard the second heartbeat? That midwife was awful."

Laxus shook his head. "I could hear the heartbeat with my dragon slayer hearing. I only ever heard one."

"Then how?!"

The younger pointed to the babies. "It wasn't one heartbeat. It was two heartbeats in perfect unison. Their breathing and heartbeat is identical even now. It's kind of incredible."

"It is. Do the twin dragons have names?"

"The eldest and the one with gold eyes is Yuri. The younger with blue eyes is Mako."

"M-mako..."

Laxus nodded. "It's actually kind of a badass name."

The elder accepted this. "Yuri and Mako Dreyar. They sound like troublemakers."

"That's exactly what they're going to be. We both know it. You're probably secretly going to enjoy it for all the shit I gave you."

"No, I won't enjoy it in secret. I'll enjoy it in public. A wrecking ball called karma is about to hit you., and I'm really looking forward to it."

 **Please Review!**

AN: This story is really about Laxus and Makarov, which is why the mother goes completely unnamed. Is that weird? Probably. But you can't have a story about babies without a 'she.'

Special thanks to guest and Shaded star-chan for reviewing!


	4. Chapter 4

Laxus came home after an eight week mission to his now eight month old twins, who he had not seen in two months. The idea made him feel a little sick, but he was who he was, and he had to balance work and family in the best way that he could. It was winter and it was very cold, so he was so glad to come home.

Dinner was cooking, and his girl had Yuri on her hip while she stirred a pot of stew.

"Laxus!"

"Hey Babe."

They embraced and he kissed her lips and then greeted his oldest son. "You're growing like a weed." The baby reached frantically for him, pushing away from his mother to reunite with his father. Tiny fists clenched his shirt as Yuri wrapped himself around Laxus like a monkey and held on as tight as he could.

Laxus had a fear that they might have forgotten him, but as he held his oldest son, he realized that his son was just as glad to see him. He felt a tug on his pants and pulled up his other son, who was just as desperate to be back with him. "You two...I'm here now."

They might have looked alike, but the boys had completely different personalities, which had been evident from birth. Yuri was as cool as a cucumber, and a little sweet. If he was picked up, he'd go to sleep almost instantly. He almost never fussed about anything, ever.

But Mako? The youngest was a handful. He was fussy, had a temper, and was nosy to top it off. He was such a natural troublemaker and continually drew Yuri into his trouble.

He was surprised to find they'd become strong enough to crawl quite adeptly, and even stand and hold on to things.

Makarov came in from the guild late, so after dinner, Laxus watched his sons crawl all over the living room, play with toys, talk in some language only they understood, and roll around together like a couple of puppies.

Their mother went to bed early, presumably to get ready for him, around that time he noticed Mako with a cricket in one corner. It was kind of cute how his son watched the insect, seemingly filled with wonder at the sounds it made.

Then Yuri literally tried to climb the curtains in the living room with his father steady trying to convince him it was a terrible. "Son..son...you can't..."

Makarov came in and burst out laughing. "Welcome home, grandson. As you can see, the boys are starting to get into a little trouble."

The song of the cricket abruptly ended, and Laxus turned and saw a full-looking face on his son. He dove and squeezed the baby's face a little. "Spit it out! Right now!" But it was too late, and all that was left was a long, black serrated leg at the corner of the boys mouth.

Panic filled him and he shouted at their mother. "Babe, he ate a cricket!"

" _Mako is your son!"_ her voice nonchalantly called from the shower, knowing exactly which of her sons had done such a thing.

Makarov chuckled. "You ate grasshoppers from Porlyusica's garden when you were little. Let's see, what else? Cat food, gum wrappers, sand at the beach...it's what babies do. Relax."

Yuri reached out for his father, and Laxus took him and held him close, pausing when he felt as strange bulge. He reached two fingers into the diaper and pulled out a little plastic toy person.

They were actually quite a handful, completely different in how they explored the world and yet inseparable as they did so. Maybe they would crawl away from one another for a moment, but they always collided somewhere in the middle of the floor. Laxus decided that if they could stay like that throughout their lives, neither of his sons would ever have to know the sharp sting of being alone.

They played until they fell asleep together in the middle of the floor, and Laxus put them to bed.

He rejoined his grandfather for a drink. "I almost can't believe how much they've grown."

"You don't even know the half of it. They are quite something," Makarov warned.

Laxus smiled softly and sighed. "It's not so bad to be a family guy. I don't really understand wizards who estrange their own families for the sake of pursuing magic. I feel more powerful when I hold my sons than when I crush an enemy."

"I'm one of those that screwed my family up. I once I had a family. A pretty wife. A baby."

"You were married?! How did I not know this?"

Makarov shrugged. "It's an old skeleton. I have a picture somewhere..."

He went to his room and returned to a worn out old photograph that had been held so often it was worn in the outline of his fingers. He handed it to his grandson, who viewed it curiously.

"That's...Porlyusica. Is _she_ my grandmother?"

"Of course she is."

Makarov explained, "Did you know she's from Edolas? I cast a spell so powerful being reckless when I was young the anima opened and she fell into my arms. She was so shy, but she fell in love with magic, and with world, and with me. She was so beautiful."

"What went wrong?"

His grandfather seemed distant. "I was selfish. I drank too much. Then she got pregnant, and I drank even more then. I'd go on long missions just because I didn't want to face being a father. She started getting frustrated, and I started sleeping around. When her heart started to break, it was gradual and it took a long time. But one day she left Ivan and I and no one saw her for twenty years. Ivan was so angry. Everything that happened...I set all of it into motion. It's taken a lifetime for joy to return to this family. There was never anyone like her."

"That _is_ an old skeleton. But...you talk like she's dead or something. She lives a mile up the road. You should just tell her you're sorry."

The older man rolled his eyes. "Who are you to talk?"

"A man who learned how to apologize."

As soon as Laxus said it, Makarov connected scattered memories. He actually _had_ seen his grandson apologize when it was reasonably necessary. Sometimes, he did it just to soothe the woman's raw nerves.

"You just seem like you'd be bad at apologizing," Makarov admitted.

The dragon slayer shook his head. "I think when a woman cares about you, you can get by with 'I'm sorry' no matter how shitty you've been. Because women are made of feelings, so they care about how you feel more than how you act."

Makarov shook his head. "You're becoming so wise. Who even knows what you'll be able to accomplish as guildmaster."

Silence fell as Laxus let the word soak in. "Guildmaster..."

"I'm going to retire soon. I feel like I have a few years left in me, and I'd like to spend them spoiling my great grandchildren. Fairy Tail has been my whole life for so long, and I've been scared to put it down, but when I see you now, I know that you've got a strong heart. You can be strong for the orphans that are going to come, and strong for the dark days when someone falls and doesn't get up, and strong enough to help the members of the guild overcome their challenges to succeed," he said.

A female voice called his name in a certain tone and Laxus cut his eyes in that direction. "Gramps, that's my cue."

"Goodnight. I'll get the boys if they get up for the next couple of hours."

"Appreciate it."

The next day, Makarov awoke to the sensation of a tiny hand pulling on his mustache and found Mako, who he'd brought to bed after he made too much fuss in the crib. "Good morning, little monster."

He fed and changed the babies as he considered his conversation, his life, his desires, and his dreams. How long had his life just been about everyone else?

Once the others in the house had awoken, he went for a walk and found himself wandering up a winding path in the woods until he got to her door. He knocked and she opened the door with narrow eyes.

"Is someone hurt?"

Makarov shook his head. "You want to meet your great grandsons? Come with me."

"Makarov, what are you doing here?"

"Laxus figured it out. Well, I told him. They're cute little guys. You're family to them," he pressed.

She hesitated, because it was her nature to be hostile to him, but she reached for her cloak.

As they walked, he considered himself and he considered her. "Porly, I'm sorry."

"For what?" she asked.

"For everything that happened. Wrecking the marriage. Cheating. Drinking. Messing our son up. And mostly, for hurting you. Back then, there was nothing more precious to me than you, but I didn't know how to take care of you until you were long gone," he confessed.

Porlyusica took the confession with grace that could only come with age. "I'm not angry anymore. But it means something to hear you say that."

"You want to try one more time?"

The older woman laughed at how ridiculous the proposition was. "We divorced fifty years ago!"

He grew to a height taller than her using magic as she stared in shock and cupped her face gently, laying the first kiss on her lips that she'd felt since before she left him all those years ago.

"Better late than never. We have wasted literally our entire lives not being together. That's enough time apart for me. Let's do this before one of us dies."

 _ **Please Review!**_

 _ **Special thanks to grumpypirate for reviewing!**_


	5. Chapter 5

Laxus was _livid_.

Since his sons weren't really erm...human...there were challenges. Compared to their peers, his sons were first and foremost, _huge_. They were stronger, more coordinated, and had sharp senses. There was a world of difference between an average kid and the twin dragons. They were reckless and wild, and would wrestle and fight to the point of blood and still be best friends.

For this reason, they'd been taught at home until they turned seven and their magic stabilized.

Their maternal grandfather had died suddenly, so their mother was out of town, leaving Laxus and Makarov to handle the twins and the guild. Since Laxus was actually the leader responsible for both, he felt stretched a little thin between 'Dad' and 'Master.' It was on this, their first day of school, that he had given Yuri and Mako three rules:

Don't fight.

Don't fight.

Don't fight.

It was also on this, the first day of school, that they were suspended—for fighting.

When he showed up in the school office, they knew they were in a world of trouble. With a glare, they knew there would be hell to pay. Laxus was a fairly relaxed father, but his wrath was not to be trifled with.

Mako tried to speak.

"I don't want to hear it. We'll talk at home," his father warned.

The door to the office swung open and the mayor of Fiore came in. "I got an urgent message that my son was in trouble."

"..and you decided that the person you needed to fight with is the mayor's son...God, you two, what the hell? Do you even know how much I already have to hear that man complain about property damage?" he asked.

The principal called them all in—a host of pissed off parents, five ten year old boys, and on the opposite side of the room, the seven-year-old twin dragons. "For starting the fight, there's mandatory suspension for the Dreyar boys."

"They started the fight? My apologies," Laxus mumbled at the mayor as he compared the two sides of the battle. Mako had blood crusted around his nose and Yuri had a swollen eye, but those older kids? Bloody, busted up, clothes torn...and puffy eyes because they didn't fist fight every day like the twin dragons.

He was sure that hell had frozen when his eldest kicked his shin. "We're not sorry. Don't say you're sorry."

Laxus' eyes widened in disbelief that the 'calm' one would do such a thing. His boys were crazy and wild, but they were actually respectful towards adults. And if Mako felt like being crazy, Yuri was usually the reasonable one. He knelt down and whispered, "Have you lost your mind?"

He put a firm hand on each of their necks as if to suggest they better not take one more step out of his will and took them outside, where his sons attempted to reason with him.

"Dad..."

"Not one word," Laxus growled, "I will ground you for so long that by the time you are allowed to go outside again you'll be older than I am."

"M-Mister?"

The voice was tiny it almost sound like a kitten's meow. But it was from a little girl peeking at them from behind a tree. As she peeked around, Laxus noticed she was really a cute girl with tons of long, shiny, sky-blue hair and one dark blue eye watched him. She was tiny for her age like they were huge.

Yuri reached into his pocket and when the little girl came out from behind the tree, Laxus saw the other side of the face bore a terrible scar. One of her eyes was gone and he would have bet that the disfigurement wasn't caused accidentally. His oldest had an eye patch in his hand.

"Told you we'd get it back," Mako said.

The little girl hugged on both of his sons—who were normally practically allergic to them—and then gave each a kiss on the cheek, to which each looked in the opposite direction and blushed furiously from discomfort. "Thank you."

The girl put her eye patch back on and ran off.

"Let's get home. I have paperwork, and you guys have to be punished for this."

The walk home was silent and Laxus let them experience crippling fear as they made their way down the street. It was important that they not fear him, but fear his wrath when they step outside the rules because as little dragons, rules meant as much as the force that upheld them.

When they walked past the cathedral, he sternly said, "Would you like to go in an pray for mercy, because you need it."

"No," they answered in unrepentant unison.

They got home, and in the front room, Laxus took his coat off and looked down at his boys. "I'm willing to hear whatever you think you need to say."

Yuri and Mako looked at one another.

His oldest looked right up at him. "We knew you would be mad. We did it anyway."

"Why," his father pressed, nearly astounded that his oldest had somehow become so bold.

Mako said, "The big kids were hurting her. She was crying so hard."

Laxus crossed his arms. "You knew I was going to wreck your little lives for fighting and you decided to do it anyway?"

"Yes," they answered in unison.

Laxus knelt on the floor in front of them, and looked from one son to another. He placed a hand atop each of their heads, and ruffled their hair. "All those older boys were picking on that scrawny little girl because she only has one eye, and you guys beat them into the dirt to protect her?"

They nodded silently.

He embraced them, and they were confused.

The boys were surprised, but they hugged their father back, and they weren't sure why, but Mako sniffed first and they both started crying. It the first day they'd gotten into a real fight with anyone other than one another, their first time to be indignantly enraged, and their first time to experience anything that might have been compassion. The conflict between following the rules and taking action that seemed right...it was just more than they knew how to process.

So they cried, like babies, because they kind of still were.

"You're good boys," he said.

"We're sorry..."

"Don't be. You did right. You're not in trouble."

He made them a snack and sent them off to play, but there was an element of emotional gravity in their lives and every time he looked out the window, they were laying in the grass looking at one another.

Laxus sat at the kitchen table with a stack of paperwork and started working on it, looking up periodically to watch his sons. His grandfather came in from a three day vacation with his _girlfriend_ , and took a seat next to him.

"Master Laxus, do you need help with that?" he asked.

Laxus took a sip of his coffee and looked up at him over his reading glasses. "If you don't mind."

Makarov sat down. "How was the first day at school?"

"Expelled for fighting."

His grandfather shook his head. "What kind of punishment did the great disciplinarian give?"

"It wasn't a punishable offense. They were defending this girl."

"A girl?"

Laxus nodded.

Makarov grinned softly at his grandson.

Being the guildmaster of Fairy Tail kept Laxus in Magnolia more, and even if that wasn't the reason he'd taken the job, it was really beneficial for a man trying to raise small children. Laxus was an amazing father in anyone's opinion, and the twins—despite their chaos—were good boys.

Fatherhood was causing him to become wise, and as time went by, Makarov could see him take the wisdom he learned from his blood family and then apply it to his guild family.

As Makarov watched Laxus, the younger man looked from him guild paperwork, to the window where his children were playing and back down again.

His grandson said, "We're going to get married. Nothing big. Just sign the papers and whatever."

"Oh? So her father who wanted you married so bad died and now you're ready?" Makarov asked.

Laxus looked up and took off his reading glasses, rubbing his tired eyes. "Her father wrote me a letter not that long ago. He pointed out that she's given up years doing nothing but taking care of this family and she's the only one without our name. That's a valid point. We've been together happily for nine years and have two kids. No one is going anywhere."

Makarov also believed this was fair and right. "You have a good family. It would be better off with a baby girl."

"Gramps, she can't get pregnant."

"You sure?"

"Porlyusica said the twins' birth damaged her internally and that she wouldn't be able to. She hasn't been on birth control for three years and nothing has happened," he answered as he put his reading glasses back on.

The elder nodded in understanding. "Are you okay with it?"

Laxus nodded. "I think it's harder for her as a woman. I would appreciate it a lot if you didn't bring up the subject of having another baby with her. It's a little touchy still."

"Of course."

Looking down at the report before him, Laxus shook his head. "In Middleton, there was an attack of magical puppets, so Natsu toppled the water tower and turned it to steam. Brilliant, but bloody expensive."

In the wooded patch behind the house, his sons went down a familiar path to the border of where they were allowed to go, and then they crossed that border and wandered toward the source of their new friend's scent.

As it turned out, she lived on an adjacent street that formed the corner of the wooded patch, and upon finding her in the backyard of a run-down shack, she joined them. The group wandered deeper into the forest, to the stream where they were forbidden to go.

Kerohebi of Raven Tail slithered out of the ground behind them as they played next to the stream, and he grabbed Mako as Obra appeared out of nowhere and zapped him of his magic power. The little boy fell to the ground, unable to move, think, and could barely breathe.

A third figure stepped out from behind the trees.

Ivan Dreyar looked from Mako to Yuri, "So these are the twin dragons."

Yuri looked down at his little brother crumpled on the ground, and back at the little girl. He pointed at the path. "Run that way. It goes to my house."

Ivan threw a shinigami and it hit her from behind and knocked her on her face before addressing Yuri. "You're certainly his. You look like him, you think like him, you even stand like he does."

Kerohebi came out of the ground, and Yuri climbed up the nearest tree with practiced ease. He knew how the branches of this particular tree bent and could be used as a catapult because that was one of their favorite past times. It terrified Laxus to no end to see his sons randomly fly through the air.

He ran to the end of a branch, which limply bent down to just a couple of feet from the ground. His magically-sapped brother got enough strength to get up and wrap his arms around his older brother, pulling them down only to spring up like being hurled out of a slingshot and go flying through the woods. When he saw their landing pad was going to be a patch of giant thorns, he closed his eyes.

What Ivan happened to miss is that the little girl he'd knocked to the ground got up and ran down the path as instructed to the house.

She knocked softly on the back door, and Laxus seemed confused as he pulled the door open.

"Help!" she shouted, blood running down her nose across her lips.

Laxus assumed lightning form and vanished in an instant, assuming physical form so he could catch his sons who were simply flying through the air toward a thorn patch. He landed on the forest floor, boys in hand. Right away, he senses picked up on the fact that all the magic had been drained from Mako's body.

And there was his father.

This day had always been coming, almost inevitably.

Laxus put Yuri down first, and then gave Mako to him. He put his hand on the boy's chest, and magic from his body flowed into his son's body, which remedied Mako's weak heartbeat and ragged breathing. "Look after your brother for a minute."

Mako opened his eyes when he felt magic pressure swell and they looked up to see his father in his less sedate state. They'd never before seen him use magic on a large scale, or seen him bathed in lightning.

His rage was practically palpable, and if he'd been anyone else in the world, they might have run away.

Ivan crossed his arms. "Hello, my dear son."

Mako whimpered. "Dad, be careful...They're scary."

Laxus looked over his shoulder at them. "There's nothing to be afraid of now."

Ivan held a yellow, glowing lacrima up. It was the size and shape of a marble, and it glittered with lightning. "One wrong move, Laxus, and I'll shatter it. I can sense their bodies constantly require magic...he probably won't survive."

Laxus didn't give this an answer and changed back to lightning form, appearing behind him to bring so much lightning down on him that the ground beneath him caved in and created a ditch.

He moved fast, and the enemies his sons had been terrified by were tossed about like ragdolls and injured far more than was necessary. The distance between the level of skill and power was nearly laughable, but in this plan, they hadn't expected to fight Laxus.

Laxus picked the lacrima up off the ground. "If you ever come near one of my sons again, there will be no place in this world or in any other that you could hide from me. And when I find you I'll fry you until the flesh falls off your bones. You understand me, Deadbeat?"

Ivan was shaking, and didn't respond.

"Do you understand?!" Laxus roared.

"Y-Yes."

Laxus grabbed him by the shirt and shook him violently, slamming his back against a tree. "Don't you ever come near my family, my guild, this town, or anyone that I know again. The next I see your face, if you're not in a coffin, I will put you in one."

He pocketed the lacrima, then pivoted and went to his sons, who were watching in awe. "Let's go home."

Mako he held against his chest and Yuri climbed onto his back. Climbing all over their father was very familiar, but this time, they clung a little tighter, having seen their father's magic at combat strength for the first time.

"Are you mad? We went too far in the forest," Mako weakly asked.

Laxus shook his head. "Not at you. That man was always going to do this. I've known it since they day I found out your mom told me that I was going to be a dad."

"Who is he?"

Their father sighed and admitted, "That's my dad."

"You have a dad?"

"He wasn't much of a dad. Gramps always took care of me."

Once they got back to the house, Makarov rejoined Mako and his magic, and he revived as if nothing had ever happened, so after treating minor cuts and scrapes, the kids sort of settled down in the living room, having been cured of their desire to be wild for the rest of the day.

Laxus believed that his sons should have been clinging desperately to him, but they were not. They were busy playing some kind of game with the precocious little girl that had tumbled into their lives.

Makarov watched the irked expression on his grandson's face. "You look annoyed."

"They were in danger. I expect them to cling to me. I did save them. And raise them. And make them, if we're on the subject," he complained.

"And they're playing with a little girl? You're being a little petty."

Laxus went back to his paperwork until dinner was ready, and then stacked it up neatly and took it to his office. They fed the kids, and after a little more playtime, he collected the kids. "C'mon. Let's walk Katie home."

They took the long path that curved through the woods, because Laxus suspected that the kids might be together often and the woods were infinitely safer for them to cross from their home to hers.

"Can she come play tomorrow?" Mako asked.

Laxus wanted to tell his kids that they couldn't go outside ever again, but realistically, he believed the threats were probably pretty minimal now that Ivan had come and gone. He had a number of fears, but he'd grown up a high-profile target grandson of a saint wizard, and the only person that really bothered him was his father. Everyone else was scared to death to piss Makarov off that much, and such seemed to be the case with his sons.

He nodded. "It's fine if you have friends at home. But I don't want her walking through the woods by herself."

Laxus was mildly apprehensive about the state in which he was returning the girl to her home. Her hands and knees were scraped from the fight at school, and her nose was swollen and bruised and he couldn't even imagine what the girl might say to her family about the whole fiasco.

When they got to the house, he told his sons to wait at the edge of the woods and went to the front door. He knocked, and no one answered for a long time.

Katie got a key from under a rock and unlocked the door, and when it swung open, he saw a man passed out on the couch, bottle in hand.

"Is your mom home?"

"She left us," the little girl answered, seemingly infinitely older for a split second.

Laxus looked down at the man's scarred hands and face – signs of a chronic drunk fighter. He sank down to kneel in front of her. "Look, if you ever need to, come over to our house. Even in the middle of the night, if you're scared or anything. Okay?"

She nodded.

He left her there, because he had to, and walked back toward his own home with his sons. He gave them a warning, "Don't ever step foot in that house. Don't you dare even _think_ about it. I promise if you do you'll be sorry you did before I ever find out."

Once they made it back, he made sure they bathed and put them to bed, and then rejoined his grandfather to chip away at the paperwork while they had a drink.

While they worked, Laxus confided in his grandfather that he was apprehensive about letting his sons befriend the girl. He was fairly certain the man beat the little girl, but he drank and they lived alone there, so there was a potentially different angle of horror. He didn't want to talk to his sons about abuse or alcoholism and certainly not molestation, if that was an issue.

And on the other hand, it would have been cruel to try and keep them away. The little girl needed friends, and as much as he wanted to prioritize his sons above another child, he felt it was immoral because as a parent, he felt a certain protectiveness to kids in general.

Makarov listened intently and then said, "Laxus, your sons are growing up fast because they're looking up to you. As you go about raising them, they watch every move you make. You treat their mother with respect, so they feel like that's how men are supposed to treat women. You help out around the house, so they will too. You sit around with your paperwork, and they go read and work on school work. They can't be like you and be little selfish children. If you hadn't been so involved, maybe, but you have poured your life into raising your boys. So don't be surprised that they're just like you."

Laxus was startled by this idea, but it felt true in his spirit. In his mind, he knew they did tend to emulate him, from the way he brushed his teeth to how he put ketchup on eggs. "I always think it's cute when they do stuff like me, but I don't want them to be me. God, I was such a fuck up when I was a teenager."

His grandfather asked, "Look at who you were emulating."

His looked absolutely blank as it hit him. "I was like that...because I was mimicking my dad?"

"Babies are like little patches of dirt, and whoever looks after them plants seeds there, whether they want to or not. Your father and I both tossed seeds into the garden and so your grew up with a lot of conflicting emotions," he explained.

Makarov's arm suddenly extended magically and he tore a single hair from his grandson's head, laughing almost heinously at it.

Laxus narrowed his eyes. "What's so funny?"

"How old are you now?"

"Thirty-two."

Makarov held up the hair to his face. "A gray hair. So it begins!"

Laxus swatted his hand away. "I honestly don't give a fuck as long as it doesn't fall out."

"Don't worry, that comes next," his grandfather laughed as he gave his own bald head a pat. "It's fun watching you growing older. Your face is getting softer. So is your body. I remember when you were a solid block of muscle," he mused.

His grandson looked at himself. "I'm in excellent shape."

Makarov pinched the little bit of fat on his abdomen.

"I sometimes wish you were my age so I could beat you in battle and no one would assume it's because you're ninety-six."

"I could still take you."

When they finished their paperwork, Laxus and his grandfather headed to bed and was laying awake for the better part of an hour when his door squeaked open.

He reached over and turned on the light and found both of his sons standing there.

"We're scared."

Laxus sighed. "I thought we were passed you guys getting in the bed. It'll let you do it just this once, but only because your mom isn't here. C'mon."

The boys crawled into the bed and got under the covers and Laxus spread the blankets over them before turning out the lights and draping an arm across the two boys.

"You're the best, dad."

 **Please Review!**

Special thanks to crimsonlink for reviewing!

AN: I like to think of myself as an omni-shipper. I will ship anything as long as the story is good. Gray/Bixlow? Just make me believe it and I'm down. I do have certain favorites though.

As for this story, I think I'll just have chapters for different milestones in their lives as the twins grow up.


	6. Chapter 6

Raising twin boys?

Laxus awoke to the sound of a crash at 5:23 am. His boys were nine now, and they were exactly as terrible as he always knew they'd be. Well, maybe not terrible, but _excessively mischievous_ and exceedingly reckless. They were really good kids, and when it came down to actual moral choices, they were outstanding, but in the day-to-day?

He growled and pulled the covers over his head. He'd long stopped worrying about what they were doing at home.

His wife started to stir, and he kissed her on the forehead. "We made monsters," he mumbled.

"The monsters are hungry."

"If you feed them, they'll never leave," he joked.

He and his wife dressed and went in the kitchen, where Makarov was sitting with the group of four kids, drinking his coffee. There were Yuri and Mako, his still too-enormous-for-their-age twins; and Silver Fullbuster, Gray and Lucy's wild and largely undisciplined ice-breathing eight-year-old son who looked like a clone of his father and was a troublemaker; and then Katie, a girl who had become inseparable from the twins after they got suspended form school for fighting for her. Porlyusica had given the girl a new eye, and Juvia was teacher her water magic, so she had come out of her shell and become charismatic, precocious, and full of mischief.

Katie practically lived at their house and on most nights, slept in Yuri's bed with him. Where they went, she went, with no exceptions. If they ran crazy in the forest, so did she.

They were two lightning dragons, a water mage, and an ice mage. Laxus was fairly certain they'd form a team when they got a little older, and he was okay with that. As much as he'd wanted to leave opportunities open for his sons to choose a different lifestyle, dragons are naturally magical creatures, so they'd been wrapped up in magic since birth. They were going to be absolutely terrifying because lightning plus water, water plus ice, and ice plus lightning were all crushing forces and they were already learning how to work their magic together.

His wife made pancakes, as nonchalant and always.

The kids had a worn out piece of paper in hand, and Mako said, "We found a treasure map. We're going to go and find a treasure."

Laxus glanced down at it. "Oh? I see that map clearly says 'East Forest' and I also remember that you are absolutely forbidden from going there. I feel like I should just ground you now." He turned to Silver and narrowed his eyes. "I think I've told you I better not find you half-naked when there are girls around."

Silver looked at Katie. "Ew, she's a girl?"

The girl kicked him under the table. "You're offending all my sensibilities."

"You bi-"

Lightning suddenly enveloped him and threw him from the chair.

"Tch!" Silver crossed his arms and sulked. "Who did that!? What kind of family is this, someone get struck by lightning at the table and there are this many suspects?"

Yuri narrowed his eyes. "Don't curse at her. Got that?"

Silver growled, "You don't need a stupid girlfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend!" she said, kicking him under the table again.

"You sleep in his bed. People who sleep in have babies. It's called _sex_ ," Silver explained.

The word had been uttered and all the activity in the kitchen just stopped.

In wrong context, with wrong meaning, with wrong everything, and Laxus was going to pummel Gray when he got home. He had no idea how Silver had learned this, but they did go to school so it was likely he'd overheard the terminology there, especially since he had no idea what it really meant.

Mako exclaimed, "That's not how it works...right?" he looked up at his father, who looked so incredibly annoyed. "Dad?"

Laxus felt his mouth go a little dry, and he looked up at his grandfather, who chuckled at this moment that was unfolding at their table. "Well..."

The little girl and his oldest son were both panicking and blushing at the same time, Silver was enjoying their discomfort, and Mako looked like he was really just curious, but had he been given the choice, he'd rather go climb trees than find out where babies come from.

After pancakes, it was his wife who saved him from this moment. "Divide and conquer?"

Laxus nodded.

She grinned at the little girl, who had no mother to talk to her about such things. "Let's go shopping today, okay?"

Makarov and Laxus became official members of the search party for the buried treasure, and while the kids were getting ready for their expedition, Makarov asked, "What are you going to tell them?"

"I'm thinking about lying," he answered.

His wife shook her head. "Honey, how old were you and how did you learn about what sex is? I think I was about this age."

Laxus sulked at this and combed through his memories. "Gildarts accidentally left a dirty magazine at the guild. I think I was about a year younger than the boys are. How much are you going to tell her? Because you know whatever you tell her, she will tell Yuri."

"I'm going to tell her what it is and about her cycle. She's almost ten, and most girls start between ten and fifteen. She's started to develop a little, so it might be sooner rather than later. I don't know if you had noticed," she calmly answered.

Makarov smiled in amusement at this exchange. "You may not have, but I'd be willing to bet Silver has and that's why he drives that girl nuts. I feel like that's going to be a problem for Yuri."

"Why?" Laxus asked.

"How did you not realize your son has had a little girlfriend for two years?" his grandfather asked.

"Yuri? Never. I think it's not like that. I think she only ends up with Yuri because Mako drools, bites, and kicks in his sleep," Laxus argued.

Laxus' wife said, "You really are oblivious. It's kind of cute."

So they departed, Makarov and Laxus with three wild little boys who had a treasure map. The men walked behind the boys, overseeing this adventure they were having. Unfortunately, the smart one in the group was the girl, and without her, they were incapable of even reading the map, so after bickering about it and getting into a fist fight, they followed on a single path into the dangerous, dark East Forest.

They were walking for a while and his son Mako, wholly displeased with how smooth it was going, commented, "I haven't even seen one monster."

Yuri, looked over his shoulder. "The scariest monsters in this forest are following us."

"I wanted to fight," Silver complained.

The path suddenly turned down a steep path, and all three of the boys skidded down and fell and before Laxus or Makarov could intervene to keep them from falling, Yuri had leapt into a tree, Mako had flipped onto his feet, and Silver had stopped himself with an ice pick he created and stabbed into the dirt.

"How are you going to fight and you can't even walk?" Mako teased.

Silver lunged and he and Mako rolled down the steep path about thirty feet, sporting little cuts and scrapes at the bottom of the hill. These minor injuries did nothing to deter them, and they continued fist-fighting and hollering insults at one another.

Laxus shook his head. "I can't stand that kid."

He was going to intervene, but he looked up and saw his oldest son standing on a tree branch. Yuri narrowed his eyes and a small bolt of lightning struck the two scrapping on the ground.

Yuri was the leader of all; at school, among the kids at Fairy Tail, and within their little group. He was a creature of few words, but there was something about him that caused the others to follow. Not even Mako really wanted to cross him.

Since he was separated from the other two boys, Laxus looked up and bluntly asked, "Hey. Is Katie your girlfriend?"

Their eyes met as his son was perched atop the tree branch. For a while, he son just stared at him.

"...well?"

Yuri gave him a dirty look, jumped down and turned, jumping from one rock to another down the steep incline.

Makarov laughed so hard, he had to slap his knee.

"What is so funny..."

His grandfather pointed. "That...that is you! Ask you a question, and you give me a shitty look and turn around. Like hell you did, and I'd spent my life taking care of you. I'm so glad I was able to live long enough to see it happen to you. Now I can die in peace."

"Whatever."

Laxus decided to address the attitude of his firstborn at a later date, because when he and Makarov jumped to the bottom of the incline, Mako asked, "So about babies."

"Goddamit," Laxus whispered.

Mako licked a bloody scratch on his hand, and Laxus thought back to their early lives when he'd freak out about every little scratch. Since his sons were perpetually cut up, bleeding, and bruised because they were absolutely wild and reckless, he'd adopted a more nonchalant attitude toward their injuries on the grounds that if they didn't care, he wouldn't either.

"Our teacher is getting really fat. She says she has a baby in her belly," Mako said.

Silver looked up at the older men. "We were wondering...how did it get in there? And how is it going to get out?"

Yuri was still sulking, but was curious also. "Is it because she slept in a bed with a boy?"

There was a clearing up ahead, and Laxus slid his pack off his shoulder. "Let's eat lunch. I'll tell you some things. Not everything. There's a different talk we'll have in a few years."

This conversation had been coming since forever, and Laxus honestly knew he'd gotten by a little lucky that it was postponed this long. His sons' brand of crazy was inclined to destroying property, not innocence, so their exploration of the world was very different than it was for others.

Makarov spread out the blanket and they unpacked the picnic that the twins' mother had packed, and the boys sat in a row across from the older men.

Laxus rifled through his wallet and showed them an old photo.

Mako, who was sitting in between Silver and Yuri, looked at it curiously. "That's mom? She looks so different. Her belly is huge!"

"That's when she was pregnant. You're both inside of her. I think this was a week before you were born," Laxus said.

The youngest was fascinated, the elder was pensive and moody (which could be expected), and Silver seemed confused. Mako said, "How could she even walk?"

Makarov grinned a little at the memory. "She kind of waddled like a duck. Your dad would laugh at her, and she'd get mad."

Laxus took a deep breath. "So. Sex."

The boys stared at him.

"First all, sleeping in the same bed with a man is not sex."

Mako let out a sigh of relief. "Oh good."

Laxus quirked one brow. "Have you had a girl in your bed?"

He shook his head. "You sleep in the same bed as mom. So I'm glad it's not sex."

Makarov laughed when Laxus brought a palm to his face.

Their father sighed deeply. "You know girls are made a little differently than we are, right?"

They nodded.

"So, when you start to get a little older, your bodies are going to change. You'll start turning into adults, and you'll start feeling attracted to girls. You'll start wanting a girl to touch you, and for her to touch you back. Sex is something grownups do when they really like one another. They get undressed and touch each other and then the man...uhhh..." he felt like he'd done well, but he lost steam when he saw their little eyes as they watched in horrified fascination.

He summoned his courage. "...the man puts his penis inside of the woman's...," God, he didn't want to ever utter this word with his sons."...vagina."

The first response he saw was his oldest son's eyebrow twitching furiously. His youngest son kind of melted in horror, and Silver seemed absolutely _blank_.

Yuri tilted his head in confusion like a lost puppy, eyebrow still twitching. "Why?"

"It feels good," his father answered, "Anyway, when two people come together like that, sometimes, a baby is made inside of the woman. And the baby grows inside of the mom for a long time, and then when it's time for it to be born, the mom has the baby. In your case, babies."

Mako asked, "How does it get out?"

"The same way it got in," Makarov said, deciding to have a little mercy on his flustered grandson.

Yuri was horrified by this. "What you're saying is...you put that...in my mom, and then...and then..." He looked pale and dizzy.

Laxus nodded.

Mako swallowed hard. "We came out of Mom's..."

Laxus nodded again, suddenly blushing in front of his own sons.

"Are you sure?" Yuri asked.

Their father nodded again. "I was there. I saw it happen. You came out butt first."

Silver finally made a wrenched up face. "That's so gross. My parents too...ewwww!"

A surge of relief pulsed through the twins' father once he'd finally waded through the basic mechanics. "When you guys were born, your mom almost died. Having a baby hurts a mom a lot, for a really long time. But with your mom, it felt like it went on forever, and some things went wrong. It was really scary. I was so relieved when Yuri was born, and then suddenly, your mom was yelling and there was another baby."

"You didn't know we were twins?"

Laxus shook his head.

Makarov listened to all this quietly, because these were Laxus' sons to raise. It was ridiculously amusing to watch his grandson navigate the waters of parenthood for a number of reasons, but this conversation possibly took the cake. Laxus was an amazing father, but his sons—whether intentional or not—were so good at throwing him off.

The boys ate their sandwiches in silence, except Yuri, who wandered off into the woods.

Laxus stood up and followed him to the tallest tree in the East Forest.

His little fingers found crevices in the bark and he started to climb quickly, so Laxus jumped onto a branch as he pulled himself onto it. "Dad."

"Son."

Yuri shifted his focus back to the tree and jumped, deftly grabbing a branch above him. He moved quickly up the tree, and after fifteen minutes, made it to the topmost branch, where Laxus had teleported because he lacked the patience and probably the agility to swing from the tree branches.

It was a tall tree on the highest hill, and from where they were, they could see for miles.

The boy was panting, and Laxus saw a little blood on his fingertips.

Yuri said, "She's not my girlfriend. Leave me alone already."

Laxus almost took his denial at face value, but then realized his son was just being a son. "She is your girl. Look at that." He pinched at the boy's cheek. "Yuri has a giiiiiirlfriend."

Yuri narrowed his eyes and leapt from the branch. Laxus was about to panic and try to catch him, but before he could move, a streak of lightning bounced from one tree to another and so he assumed lightning form and followed.

They met again on the ground and Laxus ruffled his hair. "That's so impressive. You're really coming along with your magic. You're a good kid. Everyone looks up to you. And I'm glad you have a little girlfriend."

"Dad."

"Hm?"

"Stop."

Laxus just messed his son's hair up even more. "You really are my son."

"That's actually really gross to me right now, Dad."

"Don't talk to me like that. I _made_ you."

"Sick."

They rejoined the group and discovered the buried treasure, which was actually just a fish Happy had buried at some point in the very distant past.

To assuage their desire for adventure, Laxus and Makarov let the boys venture off a little on their own and they were attacked by a Gorian. They watched from a far and at any minute, either of the saint wizards could call the wrath of God down on the beast, but they didn't have to.

Silver froze the forest floor, and Yuri used lightning form to deliver a pretty high voltage dose of _punch_ to the back of the monster's head and when the Gorian stood to his feet, Mako screeched 'Thunder Head Butt' and threw him back down. Their magic was little, and their bodies were still little, but the older men could see them growing to be quite big.

Makarov watched proudly. "What do you see?"

"The future."

When the Gorian started to run, Silver and Mako started to chase and were stopped by the Yuri who wisely prevented them from scattering to chase the monster.

They got home, and the boys found their mother had already returned from her mission with the little girl, who had made a rare visit to her actual home. Silver's parents were back, so he went home.

Laxus moved in to kiss his wife and found his sons giving him the same annoyed expression. "..What now?"

Mako said, "Leave Mom alone."

"If I did that, you two wouldn't be here," he teased.

"Mom!" he whined.

Laxus felt his wife move out of his embrace and turn back to their laundry as she said, "Boys," in a way that caused Laxus to know he was also included, "We're going to have a peaceful evening and you're all going to grow up. Right now."

After dinner, he got his sons to bed, and his wife went to bed early. Laxus joined his grandfather for drinks and paperwork at the kitchen table, as was their custom.

Makarov took out a pen and asked, "Learn anything interesting today?"

"Nope. Today I was the teacher that stripped away a piece of their ignorance," he answered.

His grandfather said, "You missed the big picture. Your sons trust you. That's a sign they're growing up really well. I didn't have that with Ivan or with you. You learned about things the hard way or on your own because you didn't trust anyone."

It suddenly started to pour rain, and for a while, they continued their normal routine of talking about the day, the guild, the kids, all whilst they chipped away at expense reports and tax forms.

Laxus heard the window in his sons' room open, and a thump—the sound of Katie sneaking in as she did practically every night in order to avoid her father.

"The girlfriend..." Makarov mumbled.

"I think she likes him and he has no clue at all about it."

His grandfather shrugged. "Give it a few years. Puberty is quite an enlightening time."

 _ **Please Review!**_


	7. Chapter 7

Makarov asked for something special for his 100th birthday, which was celebrated with a wild, boisterous drunken party at Fairy Tail. Laxus wanted to deny him, but the thing he request had been coming for a number of years and he knew it was time.

Porlyusica had died a couple of months prior, and although Makarov pretended he was okay, he clearly was not. Laxus felt like some part of the light in him had dimmed, and suddenly, it was like he was actually an old man and not a young man trapped in an old man's body.

So at his grandfather's request, just as Makarov had let him join the guild at the age of twelve, so he let his sons. There were some conditions: they couldn't go on solo missions and they had to continue to excel at school.

The four kids—the dragon twins, their friend Katie the water mage, and Silver Fullbuster sat on the counter at the guild while everyone drank, and Makarov wielded the guild stamp proudly.

Gray stood with Laxus for a moment and then shook his head. "I don't know whether I should be proud or terrified."

"A little bit of both is probably in order," Makarov said.

Mako jumped onto his feet on the counter. "Yeah! Team Fairy Storm!"

"Oh, you have a team name already?" Makarov was brimming over the top with pride. "This is the fifth generation of Fairy Tail for our bloodline. This is the highest honor an old guy like me can know."

Laxus watched his grandfather leave a midnight blue mark on his oldest son's left arm first, then Mako, and then the other two. While he did feel immense pride as a father, he also great fear because they were his sons, and that meant they'd run to danger.

And so, his sons took their first job.

The job was three towns over, and the mission was to climb up a mountain and recover a jewel hidden in a an abandoned church. They were qualified to do such a thing at their age and skill level, and he went to the counter and stamped the page, looking up at the excited kids.

They waited for the lecture.

And waited.

Laxus looked at them looking at him. "...What."

Mako asked, "Aren't you going to tell us not to destroy anything, to be good, not to get into trouble...you know. The normal stuff."

Laxus put his hand over his son's guild mark. "You're Fairy Tail wizards."

"...so you expect us to be good?" Silver asked.

Their master gave them a wicked grin. "This is _**Fairy Tail**_ ," Laxus pointedly said.

They stared up at him in question so Laxus added, "As part of this guild—and as my sons—you will probably destroy everything in your path, and trouble will hunt you down to the ends of the earth. Do what you think is right. That's all you need to know."

Once they had their job, and their marks, the kids made merry with the other guild members, and the family eventually went home. Makarov got so drunk at his 100th that Laxus had to carry him home, but his grandson made no complaints.

At the house, Laxus put Makarov in his bed and took his shoes off, ignoring most of his babbling.

"Grandson of mine..."

Laxus looked up at him. "Go to sleep already. You're completely trashed."

"How are the boys?"

"Good. They've never seen you shitfaced before. You're setting a fine example."

Makarov chuckled. "They're Fairy Tail wizards. They're going to see some drinking, some fighting, some..." he fell over and started snoring.

Laxus shook his head and turned out the lights. "Night Gramps."

He went to the twins' room and was going to talk to them, but instead found their mother acting out a little separation anxiety.

" _...I packed you some snacks, and I folded your clothes...made sure you had enough clean underwear for a week. There's a first aid kit in your bag...and some pictures in case you get homesick, and coats and extra blankets in case you get cold..."_

"M-Mom..."

"...Mom?"

Laxus entered the room and found his wife packing two very huge bags. "Babe, they're Fairy Tail wizards. They can pack their own underwear. Their job isn't dangerous and it isn't far away. Relax. They're basically just going for a hike."

She huffed and left, and he smirked at his sons.

"You guys are such mama's boys," he teased as they dumped their overstuffed bags. "It's a shame your mommy has to fold your clothes so you can take a wizarding job."

"Dad!"

Laxus smirked and flopped down on Yuri's bed and laid down, hands behind his head. "My little monsters...professional wizards. Wizards who need their mommy!"

His sons glared at him.

Being able to tease one's children was one of the greatest joys of having them, and Laxus indulged himself as necessary. Their room was one of his favorite places to be, and when they weren't home, he occasionally went there and took in their scents. And truthfully, he knew he was going to miss his little monsters enormously. He was already worried, but he had to endure it and pretend he wasn't afraid they'd come to danger.

Their father said, "Speaking of your mother, make sure—no matter what—that you don't get wounded unless you can't help it. Don't come home in bandages. She cries when I do it, so I can't imagine what will happen if you two do it."

"We're just going for a hike," Mako answered.

Laxus sat up. "If I told her you were hiking up a mountain covered in monsters, I'd be sleeping on the couch tonight. She was already really antsy about you joining the guild, so don't let this blow up in my face. Don't forget to stop by the guild in the morning on your way out."

The boys did as they were told, and along with the rest of their little team, departed on the train.

Laxus saw them off, returned home to check on his very hungover grandfather, and went to the guild. He approved job requests, did paperwork, sparred with Natsu, and had a generally productive day, although when it got to be the time he usually went home to his family, he felt strange.

What was he really going to do now that they were growing up?

The thought was initially bothersome, but then he remembered he'd had a life before the boys came along.

He went home anyway, and found there was no dinner cooked. His wife wasn't home, and his grandfather—who had mostly recovered from his personal drink-a-thon—informed him she'd gone out with friends.

Laxus made an ugly face.

"What now?"

His grandson shrugged. "I was going to ask if she wanted to go on a date. No dinner, no date, nothing...what is my wife doing?"

Makarov chuckled. "Oh? I guess she does have one boy to take care of who is never going to outgrow her. He'll always be hungry and needy."

"That's right, although your phrasing is unfortunate to say the least. Anyway, let's go get something to eat."

Makarov and Laxus went to a pub, ate, and then got completely trashed with Gildarts who had just come into town. Laxus couldn't even remember the last time he'd gotten totally drunk because he didn't want to set a bad example for his sons, but they were gone and he felt an odd sense of freedom even though he was nearly worried sick.

They ran into Natsu at approximately eleven at night and the night ended in a violent, intoxicated battle royale in the East Forest.

At dawn, he woke up in the forest and rubbed his head.

Natsu was already sitting up, rubbing bruised ribs. "Wasn't last night the best?"

Laxus nodded. "It's been...thirteen years? Since I got drunk, partied, and fought all night. No sons to see me being a terrible goddamn example."

When the lightning mage stood to his feet, Natsu did the same, and flames wrapped around his fist.

"I'm hungover, go away, little dragon," Laxus grumbled.

Natsu gave it up and leaned on the tree. "We're maybe a little bit old to be doing this."

The lightning mage nodded. "Maybe a little."

Gildarts stirred nearby, and Makarov was sitting on a tree branch. "Natsu, don't be like that. This is a man's adventure!"

Makarov started to laugh. "That was quite a night."

Laxus put his arms out and Makarov jumped into them, once again hungover. "Gramps, if we're too old to be doing this, I don't know what the hell you're doing."

"You and Natsu are just being pussies," Makarov answered.

"...says the guy who has to be carried home twice in a row," he grandson answered.

Natsu picked at blood caked to the side of his skull. "Gramps, you can still kick my ass. That's so awesome! Let's do this again tonight!"

Laxus shook his head. "Gramps needs to calm down and act his age."

Makarov sighed as Laxus turned to leave. "Why do I need to act like an old man when I have you to do it for me?"

They went home, Laxus faced the wrath of his wife, and then showered and went to the guild.

He was halfway through Natsu's monthly damage reports when a bird flew through the door with a note. "Urgent! Urgent!"

Laxus took it. "From the Council?"

 _Attention all guildmasters: a request on Mt. Hora has been deemed extremely dangerous. Intelligence suggests Bluenote Stinger may scramble the wizards that take the job. Kill on sight request!_

Mirajane asked, "Who took that job?"

"The kids..."

Laxus lightning teleported over a series of long-range bolts of lightning that cut across the sky. There were many wizards who had the ability to harm or kill the kids, but most didn't have the nerve to take down a member of Fairy Tail. Bluenote was an exception, because he was not only mad out of his mind, but he was probably one of the few people who didn't give a thought to the consequences of his actions. And, considering his history with Fairy Tail, he might have a little taste for vengeance.

When he got to the mountain, he was mid-teleport when he saw a small form falling from the peak toward the ground two thousand feet below. It was Silver Fullbuster, and Laxus caught him and landed on the side of the mountain.

The boy was shaking and covered in blood.

His face was busted—one eye nearly swollen shut, lip busted, cheeks bruised, and his collarbone was broken so bad it was protruding from the skin.

"Is everyone still alive?"

Silver nodded. "I think...I got separated. He pushed us down different sides of the mountain. He wants the jewel."

"Who has it?"

"I don't know." Silver curled up and grasped his midsection and screeched.

Laxus laid him down. "I'll be back. Be still."

He picked up Katie's scent second, and when he was on his way to her, he felt his insides turn at magic swelling at the top of the mountain.

Laxus was close to the top when his sons launched a unison raid—a dangerous, terrifying attack that could only be done by those magic could successfully bond. While he was being thrown from the mountain, it made sense that they would be able to do this as twins.

The whole top of the mountain was blasted off by a pillar of lightning, which sent his sons flying with it, so Laxus moved as fast as he could. Mako was was within his range of vision, and he was conscious, so his father made a dangerous decision and disregarded him so he could catch Yuri, who was not conscious, and scrape Katie off the ground before she was crushed by a piece of falling rubble.

The blast was still in progress when Mako flipped back to it.

"Don't eat that!" Laxus shouted but he was too far away to be heard.

Mako was the younger. He was always behind, if not under, his older brother.

Always.

Yuri could do at least a dozen things his brother couldn't, but as Laxus watched, his youngest ate the swirling chaos of the unison raid. Bluenote took note that their father had joined the fray and changed the field of gravity so the pieces of rubble were suspended in mid air, concentrating the force of gravity like a force field to keep Laxus out.

Laxus didn't understand the source of his son's blind rage until he looked down and realized Bluenote had nearly crushed Katie to death. Blood trickled out her mouth, suggesting there had been extensive internal injury.

Up above him, Mako and Bluenote were standing on chunks of rocks held in the air by a gravity disruption. The magic from the unison raid churned inside of Mako, and scales appeared on his face.

"Children doing a unison raid...you two are twins, are you not? You use the same magic," Bluenote said as blood trickled down his nose, "To think that you can be so ferocious at such a young age."

Mako coughed, blood came out and he held his broken ribs. "Who do you think you are? You show up at our mission, you hurt my team, and you stand there with that goddamned smirk like I'll let you! I will knock that fucking smirk off your fucking face!"

"Can you sense my magic?" Bluenote asked.

The boy's stormy blue eyes glistened with determination. "My dad taught me that when you encounter a strong opponent, what's important is standing up to him!"

He was fast, catapulting off the rocks.

Mako landed three hits on a row and Bluenote punched him so hard he went flying through one rock and landed on another.

"How are you even standing?" Bluenote hissed, unable to use his gravity magic to keep Laxus away _and_ use it to crush the kid.

He'd already been hit by the unison raid, and destruction in the form of Laxus loomed just below.

Mako's, who had always been insecure that his brother was a more advanced wizard, had recently confided in his father that it made him feel inferior. Laxus told Mako that he was more like him, even though everyone always saw the similarities between the elder brother and their father. Laxus called it the 'get pissed and destroy everything' gene, and that someday, he'd find himself in a place where technique, knowledge, and experience don't mean a damn thing. That in that moment, his whole self would be united in purpose, and magic would be at his command.

And none of that had made sense until that moment.

Mako closed his eyes, and he commanded his lungs that had never carried magic. They electrified and his latent genes came to life as he drew in a huger amount of air than should have fit in his body.

He got hit in the stomach and as he flipped in the air, he gave Bluenote and upside down smirk and then let out a lightning roar that sent the man tumbling off his rock. His gravity magic faltered for just one second, and Laxus entered that space.

"Come to rescue the young ones from your guild?" Bluenotes asked.

Mako fell to his knees on a rock. "D-Dad."

"Well done, Son. Go down and help the others."

Bluenote's eyes widened a little. "Son..."

Laxus' aura viciously outward. "This is my son whose blood you've spilled, whose body you have bruised, whose bones you have broken. Make your peace with God because I am about to fucking annihilate you!"

The sky exploded into lightning, and the gravity barrier crumbled, sending the rubble hurdling toward the ground.

The elder drove Bluenote into the dirt, and although there was no way that the team of youngsters might have defeated him, it was worth noting that they were all alive. They were alive, but they weren't cowards, and even though as a father, he would have preferred they had run, he knew his sons were courageous.

They had been courageous always. They had always been brave enough to do what was right, even when it had consequences. He'd fight for them even if they'd been somebody else's kids.

When he was finished, he returned to the group of kids, who were all going to survive, but were banged up.

"You guys all right?"

The kids nodded, seemingly in unison.

"I'm really proud of all of you. You stood your ground. It's okay to fail a job as long as you do your best and you come home."

Yuri put a hand on his bleeding skull. "Fail?" He reached out and stuck his hand into the watery body of the team's only girl to retrieve an ice-crusted gem. "Master, our dad didn't teach us how to fail."

XXX

Makarov tossed the whiskey in his glass as he sat with his son at the kitchen table. "So, how bad was it?"

"Well, I let our sons join the guild, I went out drinking all night and fucked up the East forest, and then our kids broke a total of eight bones together over the course of three days. She's going to be hot for a while," Laxus explained.

The older man chuckled. "The kids did really well."

Laxus nodded. "I think the part that surprises me most is Mako. He's always been the little guy, and always been behind Yuri. He was the last one standing, and when it came down to protecting his team? He was incredible. Fast, smart, powerful, completely in command of the magic that he possessed. In a real fight, he'd smash his brother, who has always beaten him."

"He's always been the type, didn't you notice? They will grow to recognize and respect the power each holds," Makarov answered.

His grandson sighed and shook his head. "Raising wizards is a pain in the ass."

"Tell me about it," the older man answered.

They were quiet for a while, and Laxus asked, "You're all right, Gramps?"

Makarov nodded. "I'm getting really old now. The people who were young with me are all dead and gone now. I don't regret anything about my life, you know that. When a wizard's time for adventure is over, it's really quite awful."

"Are you saying you're ready to die?"

"No. I want to stay with my family and watch the twins grow up a little more. And then, I'll be ready."

This was an uncomfortable conversation for Laxus, but it was what it was. Makarov was extremely old, and whether or not he acted like it, age was eating away at his body. All Makarov's friends that were still alive when he retired had died over the past decade, and he was seemingly getting restless with the world in general.

But truthfully, Laxus wasn't ready to say goodbye, and Makarov wasn't either.

 _ **Please Review!**_

Special thanks to justanotherwriter for reviewing!


	8. Chapter 8

Their sons had just turned fifteen and were growing by leaps and bounds. They only had two years of school left, but in their summer job as wizards, they'd become quite accomplished. Everyone knew about Team Fairy Storm, and if they kept crushing everything they ran into, he'd have to let them take the s-class exam.

Laxus was thirty-eight years old, and his golden hair was flecked with silver hairs here and there. He blamed raising twin sons, but he knew it was probably mostly genetic.

He and his wife had raised their sons to a point where they were gone on missions during the summers and on breaks from school. There was peace and quiet and they were starting to live their own lives. It was difficult to deal with at first, but then Laxus discovered he had freedom. He went on missions to kill monsters, he took his wife on holiday, and he went out drinking with his grandfather.

Overall, Laxus and his wife had made peace with the fact their sons were growing up. They'd tried to have another child after they'd turned three, but it had never happened, and they had made peace with that too.

That led to this moment:

"Honey?"

He was reading the newspaper with his coffee. Their sons were on a job but were due back that morning, Makarov wasn't awake yet, and he was enjoying a lazy morning. "Hm?"

"I think I might be pregnant."

Laxus lowered the newspaper with wide eyes. "Tell me you're kidding."

She shook her head and held up an unopened pregnancy test. "It's been a while, right?"

When he thought about it, he remembered the fateful day he'd come home from a job and found his then nineteen-year-old girlfriend crying about her period being late. He'd run like a madman to the pharmacy and bought a test with shaking hands and they'd sat on the bathroom floor and waited for the plus sign.

"Sixteen years," he mumbled as he stood from the table. "Shall we?"

And so he found himself once again, sixteen years later, sitting on the same spot of the same floor of the same bathroom with her, holding a pregnancy test in hand while he awaited its answer. "How do you feel about this?" he asked.

She let out an uneasy laugh. "I kind of thought we were done raising kids."

"Same."

Laxus found the plus sign that appeared to be quite menacing, and he took a deep breath and put his arm around her. "Well, this is _unexpected_. Are you okay?"

"I'm all right. Kind of surprised."

He looked down at her belly. "You don't have two of them in there, do you?"

"God, I hope not. Here's to hoping there's only one and it's a girl," his wife answered.

"Of course it's a girl. She's over ten years late. Only a girl would keep a man waiting that long," he said.

She laughed, he kissed her hair, and they leaned on each other.

XXX

Laxus was on his way to the guild later that morning when something caught his eye. He stopped at the newsstand and took the latest issue of Sorcerer Weekly: Teen Edition. God, how he despised this publication in its horrific entirety.

Mako was arguably the most powerful wizard under the age of eighteen or so, and the magazine had made him into a celebrity of sorts.

There they were on the front cover:

 _ **Team Fairy Storm**_

 _ **The hottest team in Fiore!**_

The typically offensive elements were present; Silver Fullbuster was in his underwear, Mako had his finest 'eat shit and die' grin, ball of lightning in hand, and Katie was grabbing onto Yuri. The lightning dragon tattoo she had on her lower back made him _strongly suspect_ she and his oldest son were sexually active, but if they were, they were very good at hiding it because he'd never been able to smell it on them.

There were some teenage girls there, and one of them grabbed the magazine and flipped to the center fold, which was a picture that had been snapped of Silver Fullbuster and Mako beating the shit out of each other in the middle of Crocus for no apparent reason, both in their underwear, which was really a new low for Mako.

"Oh! Isn't Silver just the hottest? I wonder if he could use his ice in the bedroom, you know?"

The other girl giggled. "I bet the lightning is more fun. Plus, Mako has huge hands and feet. You know what means."

Laxus felt like he'd throw up in his mouth, but the groupie thing was starting to become the norm. Yuri did not have a groupie problem because Katie's mentor Juvia had taught her to drown any other woman that came near him, and Laxus was really fine with not correcting that behavior.

He went on to the guild to find his sons' team tearing the place apart, which was normal.

And all he could think is that he had to go through this _all over again_.

"What crawled up your ass, grandson?"

Laxus looked down at his grandfather, who had gotten into the habit of hanging around at the guild when the kids weren't around. "I kind of wish my kids were ugly."

This was one of the most idiotic things that had ever come out of his mouth, and they both knew it. Makarov laughed and sat on the second-floor rail where Laxus was leaning.

"They're some good looking rascals according to the readers of Sorcerer Weekly," Makarov teased.

Mako went flying upward, and he grabbed the edge of the balcony right next his great grandfather and perched on it like an owl. "Hey Gramps! What's up!"

"You have blood coming out of your eye," Makarov nonchalantly answered.

Mako grinned widely. "It's nothing. I'm going to fight Natsu later!"

Laxus shook his head. "He's going to beat you to a pulp."

"So?!"

The elder said, "You know the objective of fighting is to win, right?"

His great grandson grabbed Makarov off the rail as Silver came flying over and while he held his great grandfather with one arm, he used his free hand to punch Silver in the face and send him down to the floor below.

"Put me down!" Makarov exclaimed.

There was a moment where he remembered holding Mako as a newborn, and now Mako was wagging him around like a sack of flour.

Mako held Makarov up in front of him and shook lightly. "Let's fight!"

Makarov grew his hand and smashed Mako in the floor, then threw him over the rail. "Young people!"

Laxus' eyes crossed over to where Yuri was sitting on a bench. Katie was sitting on the tabletop next to him whispering in his ear. His son would deny even to that day that this was his girl, but they were always together, they did a laundry list of things that were questionably appropriate, a few things that were absolutely not, and God forbid that anyone so much as look at her.

He whispered something in her ear, and they stood up to leave the guild. Yuri's head jerked back when a book hit him upside the head and saw it was an expense ledger. He looked up at his father, who grinned heinously at him.

"Master!" he snapped.

Laxus leaned over the rail. "Where are you going, _son_?"

Yuri gave him a bad look.

"Oh? That's a murderous little look you have, shitty attitude twin. It's not in the least bit offensive, since you got it from me. Glare on, little dragon. Be home by seven. We are having a family meeting."

Yuri was in the middle of a rebellious phase that would have terrified normal parents. Makarov was impressed with how nonchalant Laxus really was, probably because his own rebellious phase had been so much worse. Laxus picked at Yuri, because Yuri barely spoke to him. But when he tried to change his strategy, it had upset the teen that his father didn't annoy him.

As far as Makarov could tell, they were just going through typical father-son strife. At least, what was typical in their family.

Yuri left with the girl and Makarov said, "That one..."

"He'll be all right eventually. The only one he treats like shit is me, so I guess I've had that coming," Laxus answered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Let him talk to his mother like that one time and I will bring the wrath of God down on that hard head."

"What's the family meeting about?"

Laxus sighed and gave his grandfather a strangely tired-looking smile. "Helena is pregnant."

Makarov was quiet for a minute. "Am I waiting for a punchline?"

"My feelings exactly."

"Oh, you're serious! I thought she couldn't get pregnant. To think after all these years!"

Laxus laughed nervously. "I'm almost forty, Gramps. My sons are fifteen. We've been together for almost seventeen years. I can't believe we're going to have another baby after all this time."

Makarov grinned. "I'd always hoped you guys would get to have another little one. This one better be a girl."

"I'm taking it back and asking for a refund if its not."

During the day, his wife had gone to a doctor, so that night, the whole family gathered in the living room. The twins sat on the one of the two sofas in the living room, and Makarov was sitting in an arm chair.

The boys squirmed nervously, unsure of what news they were about to receive.

Yuri nervously asked, "Gramps are you okay?"

Makarov narrowed his eyes. "You think your parents called you here to tell you I'm dying? Please. I'll tell you myself. But since I have you both here:

"Yuri, you need to fix that goddamned attitude. Your father loves you had has sacrificed a lot to spend time with you and raise you. It's true he was a shit when he was your age, but his father assaulted him and then abandoned him. You have a loving family and no excuse! Your father might let you get away with it, but I'm going to start knocking you upside your empty head every time you decide to be a little shit, got that? Everyone looks up to you so you have to do better!"

Yuri nodded. "Y-Yes, Gramps."

"And you, Mako. Calm the hell down. Enough. You keep looking for a fight and you're going to find one you can't win. You two need to do better. Help each other."

Laxus and his wife emerged from their bedroom to find the boys staring at the floor, looking guilty. It was pretty clear Makarov had just given them an earful, so they sat down and everyone looked at everyone else.

"Is something wrong?" Yuri asked, seeming more like a little boy and less like a rebellious teen.

Laxus shook his head. "Your mom is pregnant. We're going to have another baby."

They just stared.

And stared.

And stared.

Mako looked up. "Mom, is he for real?"

She smiled and nodded.

In twin-like fashion, they crossed their arms the same way at the same time, and slumped back onto the sofa. They were quiet for a long time, and then Mako exclaimed, "Dad! What did you do to our mom?! This is dad's fault, right?"

Laxus and his wife looked at one another, and Laxus said, "Do we need to have another talk about where babies come from?"

Mako cringed. "No. It's just really gross."

His mother tried to soothe him. "Making love isn't a bad thing."

"MOM!" the cried out in unison.

Laxus shook his head. "You are their mother. You're literally the last person they want to hear talking about sex."

She looked at her sons, who nodded in agreement.

" _Last person_ ," Yuri emphasized.

It was an awkward moment for all parties except Makarov, who was wildly amused.

His wife squeezed his hand. "It's really a good thing. You guys look so sour, but you'll understand when you meet the baby."

They seemed unconvinced and Yuri asked, "Why? Why are you guys having another kid?"

Laxus unapologetically answered, "To be honest, it just kind of happened."

BUT, if blame was going to be placed, Laxus felt the twins were mostly to blame because their long jobs had led to their parents getting to have great sex far more often.

"So you got mom pregnant accidentally?" Mako asked.

Their father laughed. "I've certainly never done it on purpose."

The twins pointed at themselves. Yuri asked, "We were...an accident?"

"Double accident," his father replied.

Their mother quickly answered, "You guys are the best thing that ever happened to us. So if we didn't plan it all out, it's okay. Life is surprising. I know you guys want to talk about all this and insult one another and then fight. I'll be in the kitchen because you're going to be hungry when you're done."

She kissed her husband on the lips, then her sons and grandfather-in-law on the cheek.

The men all looked at one another. "I can't believe you knocked up my mom," Mako complained.

"For real," his brother added.

"I can't believe it either. But anyway, pregnancy can be kind of rough sometimes. Your mom might not feel right sometimes, and she might feel weak. She has a whole person growing inside of her. So help out when you can so she can relax. You both know you're honestly old enough to be fending for yourselves anyhow," Laxus replied.

The initial shock seemed to wear off and after dinner, his sons washed all the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and took out the trash. They fussed over her, following her all over the house asking of they could do anything for her, asking her questions about the baby, and watching over her like a hawk.

Makarov and Laxus observed this from the living room.

Laxus shook his head. "They're going to bother their mother _to death_."

"You were just like that when you first found out she was pregnant with them, you know," Makarov said.

"It's hard to imagine those boys being overprotective of their pregnant mother are such monsters. They're well-balanced. Them being teenagers is...goddamn a challenge, but they're good kids. They're going to be incredible men someday," Laxus answered,

Makarov asked, "Have you realized you're going to be pushing sixty when you get this third kid raised?"

"I feel like you're more amused by that than you should be."

 _ **Please Review!**_

 _ **Special thanks to Bizzylizy and ronin warriors fanatic for reviewing!**_

 _AN: Okay, she has a name. It's Helena._


	9. Chapter 9

Mothers were a rarity at Fairy Tail. It had always been like this. In Laxus' generation, no one had one. The role his wife played in the lives of their sons was oddly fascinating to him, because even though they were growing up, they'd turn into little boys with her at the drop of a hat. On the crux of adulthood, they were boys on some days and men on others. Once in a blue moon, he'd catch one of them acting like a big baby.

One night, when he came home, he found his rebellious oldest son resting his head on his mother's eight-months pregnant stomach. He had the heaviest, most tired look on his face. The rest of his body was stretched across and off of the couch and Helena was rubbing his back. It looked a little ridiculous because she was barely over five feet tall and he was six and a half feet tall.

Laxus came in and leaned against the doorway. "Rough job?"

"Yeah..." his son mumbled as he tilted his head.

One advance in magic science since the twins' birth was the ability to know beforehand what sex the baby was, so they'd known for a month that they had a girl on the way. Yuri listened with his sharp dragon ears to the sound of his unborn sister's heartbeat and the sound of her movements in the womb.

"This is pretty cool."

Laxus sat on the other side. "You guys were rowdy even before you were born. It was noisier. Lots of kicking all hours of the night."

"Dad?"

"Hm."

"I'm sorry I'm such an asshole. I'll do better, I promise."

His father nodded. "It's okay. You get that from me. I was worse when I was your age."

Yuri smiled a little. "I always think people only know me because I'm your son. That I don't get the credit or the respect I deserve, and that people are going to only see me like that. And then I talk shit to my dad and some orphan at the guild tells me what they'd give to have a mom and dad again. This family is what makes me strong, and so what if my last name is Dreyar? If I'm like my dad, that's fine with me. My dad is the strongest person I'll ever know."

Laxus reached over and ruffled his son's hair. "You're a good son. I need to have a talk with you though. Come with me," Laxus said, gesturing for his son to follow him outside.

Yuri was very suspicious, and sat on their swing set, having long grown too large too look like he belonged there. Laxus sat on the swing next to him. "Are you going to ask if Katie is my girlfriend again?"

"I feel like you're going to deny that to the end of eternity."

"I'll admit to it now, okay?"

Laxus took a deep breath and looked up at the stars. "You two are having sex?"

"Probably longer than we should have been. Sorry," his son admitted.

His father looked down at the ground. "I get you, you know. You always think I don't understand you because I'm different, but I was a sixteen-year-old wizard once too. I used to get mad at Gramps because he would stamp my job requests and let me risk my life like it was nothing and then I'd come home and he'd have all these damn rules. Like, I can put my whole life on the line in the morning, but I better watch out where I put my dick at night. So I'm trying not to do what with you guys unless one of you does something really bad."

Yuri nodded in understanding. "Dad?"

"Hm?"

"I didn't do it to disappoint you."

Laxus ruffled his hair again. "I started having sex when I was fifteen. I didn't do it to piss anybody off, or because I didn't have a mom, or any other reason. I did it because it was awesome and I wanted to. Just be careful. I'm not ready for grandkids."

He son tensed nervously. "Too late.."

His father was sure his heart stopped beating for about ten seconds. "Wh-what?"

"Just kidding!" his son laughed.

Yuri was on his face in the dirt half a second later, still laughing. "Your face! Dad!" He laughed even when he felt his father's foot dig into his abdomen. "Tch! Get your foot off my liver please...I need it, I think..."

It was good to see his normally cranky son laugh and smile, but his father not pleased with the joke.

When he finally let Yuri get up, his son dusted himself off. "Sheesh."

Laxus gave him another threatening glare, but moved on from the subject because it was that bothersome to him. "So how about your brother? I've never seen him look at anyone before. I think sometimes all he cares about is fighting, sleeping, and eating."

"Mako has a girlfriend. I don't even know who she is, that's how secret it is. But I know she exists, and I know it's been going on for a while," Yuri said.

Unbeknownst to either, Mako was at that moment gambling with his very life whilst sneaking through the window of a beautiful girl with pink hair and green eyes.

Mako was on top of Lila Dragneel on the bed when he heard the door knob start to turn. He rolled under the bed, and she sprayed a can of aerosol air freshener in the air, which caused Natsu to crinkle his nose.

"Ugh, I hate that stuff. It really messes up my nose," he said, covering his nose with his scarf.

She smiled. "But it smells like a tropical paradise in here."

Natsu closed the window. "Oy, keep your window closed. Don't forget to lock it. Every time I come up here it's unlocked. Some creep might try to sneak in. Or some kid. When I was your age, I was a window creeper."

Mako watched him from under the bed, heart pounding in his chest as Natsu had a fairly mundane conversation with his daughter about school, about rules, about what she wanted for breakfast the next day. Since Lisanna had died when Lila was little, Natsu was raising her on his own. She was born without the ability to use magic, and was a little fragile, so he was overprotective to the point of murder.

And Mako knew in the deepest part of his soul that having sex in Natsu's house with Natsu's daughter while Natsu was asleep downstairs was a death penalty offense. He was dead if he got caught, and not 'dead' in the 'hurt really bad' kind of way, but actual clinical death that occurs when one's body is turned to ash.

Lila kissed her father on the cheek when he left her a final warning about the window. "Don't be silly, Daddy. Nobody would do that."

"I would fucking kill anyone who did."

Natsu went back downstairs, and his daughter locked the door. "Come here, dragon."

XXX

Makarov sipped the whiskey in his glass.

A drink at night with his grandson was tradition. "We've been doing this for over fifteen years. I wonder what you're going to do after I'm gone."

Laxus sloshed the liquid over the ice in his cup. "So what did the doctor say about that cough? If you're talking like that, nothing good."

"It's an anti-magic tumor in my left lung."

His grandson frowned at the ice floating in his cup. "What can be done?"

Makarov sighed. "I can have my lung removed, take a bunch of dangerous, sickening treatments, and maybe live another six years, most of which will be wretched. Or I can do nothing and have two or three good years. I'm a hundred and four, I'm not doing shit."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. This is just life. Humans don't live forever, and I've had a long, good life. It's not a terrible way to die. You get to a certain age, and you start wondering how it's going to happen. You get scared you'll live so long your mind slips, or that you won't now it's coming, or that it'll hurt too much or take too long. This way isn't bad. Anti-magic tumors don't cause pain, they just kill," Makarov explained.

Laxus knew everything he was being told was true, and that all things considered, it wasn't terrible, but he still didn't want to lose his grandfather. As adults, they'd been so close.

Makarov examined his grandson as he digested the news slowly, a clear sadness visible on his face. "Don't look like that. You're about to have a baby girl. You have a good family. It's really not something to be sad about. I'm okay with it. I have a lot of people waiting on the other side that I haven't seen in a long time."

Laxus cleared his countenance and looked up. "Is there anything you want to do or anything I can do?"

"I want to see Ivan. He's still my son and I want to say goodbye properly. I always hoped he'd get his shit together, but I guess not."

"I'll find him. He isn't powerful enough to bother the boys at this point, and he wouldn't bother their mom or the baby when she gets here."

Makarov asked, "Are you ready to see your dad?"

"I guess? I don't understand him, as a father. Sometimes I still wonder how he just left me. I couldn't make it without knowing where the kids are and what they're doing and if they're all right. My sons are good boys though. They're boys. They're teenagers. But they're great."

His grandfather nodded. "I'm glad I'll be able to meet the first girl to be born into this family in two centuries. A little pissed off I won't be around to see how much shit her first boyfriend catches. Poor shit will have to fight a whole nest of dragons."

Laxus shook his head. "I try hard not to be like that. I don't want them to sneak around because they're scared I'll get mad. Natsu is like that and he believes his daughter has a boyfriend but he must be a phantom because Natsu can't find proof he even exists. It's really driving him crazy."

"I wonder how some kid could circumvent Natsu's senses."

Laxus thought about it. "My sons are masters. Especially Mako. But God have mercy on the poor bastard when Natsu catches him."

"Mercy for ashes."

Mako passed by on his way to the kitchen.

"Where were you tonight at dinner?" Makarov asked.

The youngest of the twin dragons gave an innocent grin. "I ate out tonight. How's Mom?"

"She's fine. She went to bed early."

He continued to the kitchen and Makarov sipped his drink again. "I don't want to tell them for a while. There's no point. They'd worry and fuss. I've watched them almost bother their mother to death over a pregnancy, so I know they're going to be hard to deal with."

Laxus nodded in understanding. "Don't think we're going to just leave you alone. That's not the kind of family we have."

 _ **Please Review!**_

Special thanks to Grimnack and Bizzylizy for reviewing!

AN: I love you guys for loving on my little story.


	10. Chapter 10

Laxus held his newborn daughter and kissed his wife.

This time, it had been so easy. Everything about this second pregnancy had been easier. The main difference is that they weren't first-time parents, or anything close to it. They'd almost raised their sons to adulthood, so the things that normally freak out normal parents basically meant nothing.

The birth had been as easy as a birth can be and only took four hours from when Helena's water broke at breakfast to when the girl had entered the world.

His sons were waiting in the living room with Makarov, who made his demand as soon as Laxus emerged from the bedroom where the baby had been born.

"Gimme that!"

Laxus obliged and his sons flanked the arm chair curiously as their grandfather took the baby girl. "Boys, this is your baby sister, Mavis Dreyar."

Yuri looked up. "Is Mom okay? That sounded awful..."

"She's as good as someone can be. You guys can go in and see her in a minute."

"That was nothing compared to when you two were born," Makarov answered as he examined the baby girl. Her hair was golden and wild just like every other Dreyars, but she'd missed the Dreyar eyebrows. She did have the thick Dreyar eyelashes, and blue eyes like Mako and Laxus had. "What a cutie!" he cooed, "Hello, little Mavis! I'm your Gramps."

Laxus suddenly remembered and checked his watch. "Hey, boys, can you go to the train station in an hour and meet Ivan? You remember what he looks like?"

Yuri nodded. "We got it, Dad."

"Make sure he understands he better not start any trouble."

"We got it," Mako answered. "We can hold her?"

Their father nodded. "Of course you can. She's your baby sister. Newborns can't hold their own heads up, so you have to be careful."

"Me first. I'm older," Yuri insisted.

Makarov gently transferred her to Yuri's cradling embrace. Yuri took her back to the couch and Mako leaned over as they curiously stared at their sister while she stared at them. "You two are going to be good brothers, aren't you?"

Mako put one in finger in her hand and the baby's finger's squeezed reflexively. "Mavis is so little, Dad. We were...we were tiny like this?"

"Yeah, but as soon as you escaped from the womb, you both got huge," Laxus answered.

Yuri handed the baby to Mako after a few minutes, and seemed instantly in love with his sister. "Hey you. I'm your big brother, and I'm going to look out for you."

Their father said, "Speaking of which, your Mom and I made an important decision concerning Mavis. Whenever you have a kid, you have to think about what's going to happen if you die and you can't raise the baby. When you were born, we had someone picked out to raise you. But if it happens now, we don't want the family to break up so someone else can raise Mavis. We want you guys to stay together and take care of your sister. You guys okay with that?"

They looked up at him, and down at her, and then nodded.

"Good."

The midwife came out and told them they could go in and see their mother, which the boys did.

Laxus saw them pile onto the bed on opposite sides of their mother, who took her baby back but he didn't move from the edge of the couch. "I have a good family."

Makarov seemed unspeakably sad, and his grandson took notice.

"What's the matter, Gramps?"

The old man fought the urge to cry. "I realized when I was holding your little girl that even if I live a couple of more years, she not going to remember me."

Death was strange, especially when it wasn't something to be fought ferociously. In most circumstances, Laxus viewed death as the ultimate enemy, but there was a time and a place where it was appropriate. Makarov's time was coming, and even though his grandfather had accepted his fate, it was still complicated.

He didn't patronize Makarov, not ever. So he didn't lie and he didn't try to make him feel better. They were both men, and they faced different facets of what was happening in the best way they knew how.

And sometimes, that just meant being sad.

They both looked through the open door and found the juxtaposition of celebration for the beginning of a new life and sadness for the end of an old one.

Laxus said, "She's going to hear stories about you forever. The boys grew up with you. You were there for everything, so as she grows up, we're all going to tell her about you. I'll tell her how much you wanted to see her grow up."

"I guess that'll have to be good enough."

XXX

When Ivan Dreyar stepped off the train, he was flanked by two tall blond teenagers instantly. He normally would have found this insulting, since Laxus clearly would still think of him as a threat, but even Ivan had heard about the monsters his sons had raised. The real danger was that there was two of them, and they knew how to move seamlessly in battle.

For whatever reason, he tended to follow them in Sorcerer Weekly. It made him feel strangely happy to see them living their lives and being successful.

Mako grabbed Ivan's bag and slung it over his shoulder, throwing an arm around his slightly shorter grandfather. "Long time no see!"

"I assumed your father would be here to threaten me," Ivan protested.

Yuri pulled him down by the collar. "If you fuck with our family, my dad will be the least of your fucking problems. See, Dad might give you a little grace because he knows you, but we don't know you from shit and we don't treat our enemies well."

Ivan shrugged him off. "I didn't come here for any reason other than my son told me to come. Is my father well?"

Mako shook his head. "He's dying."

"D-Dying..."

They walked mostly in silence, and then cut down the woodland path where he'd attacked them as children.

Ivan remembered the surroundings. "I'm sorry for what happened back then."

"Whatever," they said in unison.

They headed home and the twins went straight to the little apartment that had been built since they'd been evicted from their room for the new baby after they left Ivan in the guest room. Yuri brought the baby to his room, and Mako went in to hang out because it was so weird to have separate bedrooms. They'd literally always shared a sleeping space, dating all the way back to the womb. Now, they had separate rooms and a door to the outside (although they'd always treated their old window like one) as well as to the living room.

Yuri and Mako looked after Mavis for the better part of an hour.

When she needed a diaper change, they knew immediately, and having no clue as to how, they brought her back to the living room. Makarov was asleep under a blanket, Ivan was watching him sleep with a worried expression, their mother was napping, and their father had been called away for a guild emergency.

They decided they would attempt to complete this task on their own, because really, how hard could it be? They took the baby to the nursery, and put her on the changing table and collected what appeared to be the necessary supplies. Diaper, wipes, powder.

"E-Ewwww..."

Yuri elbowed him. "We can do this. We're going to be s-class soon, so this should be nothing."

Their disgusted groans upon unfastening the diaper brought Ivan to the door. "What are you troublemakers doing?"

"Do you know how to change a diaper?"

Ivan asked, "You do know I have a kid right?"

Mako said, "We heard you weren't around."

The older man came in and taught them the art of diaper changing. "Like this...then like this...then like this...and done." When he finished, he threw the balled-up diaper in the bin and gave in to the urge to pick up the newborn. "It wasn't all bad, you know. Just most of it."

They were different, the twins, and as Ivan looked up from one to another, he found warmth of acceptance from Mako. But Yuri? His eyes were cold, almost predatory, threatening him not to even breathe the wrong way while he held Mavis.

Age had softened Ivan. Hating Fairy Tail, hating his father, estranging in his own son, attacking his family...everyone in the family was happy except him. Ivan had been the tempest that turned and tossed his son and set him at odds with Makarov, but in the end, Makarov and Laxus were closer than he'd ever be to his son.

As he held the newborn girl in his arms, stunned by how beautiful and innocent she was, he looked up at his grandsons. "You may not understand this now, but as you get older, things are going to happen. Some of them will be good, and some of them will be so bad you won't even know how to move forward. Don't stay stuck because something shitty happened. You'll wake up one day and regret everything."

Makarov awoke from his nap on the couch and saw his son in person for the first time since the Grand Magic Games where Laxus had defeated him. "Ivan."

The twins were watching him like a hawk, and when Makarov stirred, Ivan handed her off to the twins, who took her back to the master bedroom to eat.

"Hey Pops."

"You've been well?"

Ivan nodded. "Mostly. You?"

"Mostly."

Makarov looked over his son and found he was aging and had—over the past eighteen years—started to look like an old man. They were really both old men, he realized, and they were far too old to be angry about anything that happened in the past.

Ivan looked down at the floor. "My son has some nice kids."

"Don't get the wrong idea. Cross them and they'll make you wish you were dead," Makarov warned.

Ivan looked down and said, "I have a few students now."

His father looked at him as if he was speaking a foreign language. "...students?"

"As I get older, a lot of things have stopped mattering so much. I'm teaching magic to a few orphans. That's been my life in a nutshell for a few years now," he explained.

Makarov's face softened. "So you've been okay."

His son nodded. "I'm sorry, Pops. I couldn't hear you until I got old. I shouldn't have left my son with you to raise, but it was probably still the best thing."

"I didn't mind raising Laxus. I loved him from the first time I held him. I got to watch him when he was a kid. He was a nice kid too, you know. Then you came back for a while and things got rocky for a few years after that. But it was okay. Everything turned out fine, I think," he answered.

Ivan bowed his head in shame. "Do you know what my mother is up to lately?"

Makarov furrowed his brows. "You don't know? Porly died four years ago. We had gotten back together for a while, and one day, she was picking herbs and she was just gone. She wasn't sick and she didn't suffer at all."

Neither of them was really sure how they'd feel seeing one another again, but now that they were there, face to face, it was bittersweet. Makarov felt such a relief that his son had recovered from his crazed, blistering rage at some point, but was sad that he'd been a stranger to them. Maybe it was shame that kept him from even writing to say he was going okay.

No parent wants to go eighteen years without hearing from their kid. Even when he'd attacked the twins when they were little, Makarov hadn't seen him and Ivan hadn't made any contact with him.

When Laxus returned with food, all the living Dreyars converged in one place for the very first time. His wife and daughter were asleep together, and he left them just like that.

They ate, and the twins noted their father glaring at his father. They'd seen Laxus get angry in battle on a couple of occasions, but to just hate someone? Nope. It was new to them, and it made the dinner a little awkward.

The twins washed the dishes and split once the meal was over. Yuri followed one path to get girlfriend from her house, and Mako took another to have what was going to be his final evening as the phantom boyfriend of Natsu's daughter.

Makarov had a coughing fit and went to bed early, leaving Laxus and his father alone in the otherwise quiet house.

They sat in the living room and stared at each other for a long time.

The last time they'd been face to face, Ivan had attacked the boys and Laxus beat the snot out of him and threatened him. He never wanted to see him again, and if Ivan had never come around again, it was all well and good to him.

Ivan finally broke the silence. "You have a wonderful family."

"I didn't abandon my sons," he answered.

His father flinched at the thorn. "You're right, you didn't. You made a lot of right choices I didn't. You can hate me until the end of time, and its justified."

Laxus crossed his arms. "That's not it. If you didn't want to raise me, whatever. You left me with somebody who could. What I begrudge is that you came back and you turned me against Gramps and you twisted my mind. And then you left again. I put Gramps through hell over that, I got kicked out of the guild, I was a miserable shit...if you'd just stayed gone, everything would have been fine."

"Oh, so it wasn't because you missed me."

"I never really knew you. You just came in and out of my life when you wanted to without regard to the consequences it had for me. And then I realized when my sons were born that you were never really a dad. You were just some guy who made me and came around sometimes. You couldn't be my dad because you weren't a dad at all," Laxus explained.

They stayed up that night, and they talked about everything—the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between. Age and time had worn Ivan down and eventually broken him the way they broke everyone.

The worst blow for Ivan was seeing how the entire rest of the family had been happy and well while he squandered in disappointed solitude.

When they finished, Ivan went to bed in the guest room, Laxus spent an hour cuddling his new daughter, and then went to check on his boys.

Yuri and Katie were sound asleep in Yuri's bed, to which Laxus shook his head but gave no protest. They were old enough they could live somewhere else if they wanted, and have sex whenever and wherever they wanted.

Mako's bed was completely undisturbed, and Laxus wondered what kind of trouble he would get in on his own. Unlike most twins, Yuri and Mako had never really had any kind of struggle for individuality or identity and did nearly everything together even now that they were almost grown.

He wondered if his son had gone to visit his mystery girlfriend, but when he tried to follow the scent, it vanished, indicating Mako had used lightning form.

Meanwhile, at Natsu's house, the fire dragon slayer arrived home at 3am. He was home several days early from his job, which was a rarity. He was never early, only late. Happy was sleeping on his shoulder as he quietly entered. He put Happy down on the couch, and was going to go straight to bed, opting not to wake up his daughter, but he heard a scream.

He was halfway up the stairs before his brain fully processed the word that had been screamed.

" _Harder!"_

Natsu froze in place.

There was another scream, which was clearly not a scream of pain, or fear, or anything else.

His brow twitched, and he couldn't make his body move for a few minutes. He learned from the screaming that his precious, beautiful baby girl was a noisy screw. They were apparently having _great sex,_ and Natsu didn't know if that made it better or worse.

Natsu was torn between murder and throwing up, so he decided he'd do both, in that order.

He crept up the stairs slowly, reached for the door knob, and caught them mid-orgasm, during which Mako had _no_ sensory awareness.

Natsu knew the second he saw the spiky light blond hair and the gigantic feet hanging off his daughter's bed who the phantom had been. And it made sense instantly—who else would be able to sneak around on a dragon better than another dragon?

He stood there in the doorway while the teens collapsed onto each other, panting.

Mako was halfway back to reality when he caught Natsu's scent.

His daughter sat up and pulled the sheet up. "Hey daddy."

Mako grabbed his boxers off the floor as he made a swift move to escape, but Natsu grabbed him by the hair. "I-I can explain."

"Can you? Let's see how much talking you can do with a broken jaw."

Mako crashed through the window, and discovered that Angry Natsu was a completely different animal than the one he usually sparred with. Angry Natsu was absolutely terrifying, and no words gave him justice. His girlfriend's father threw him around like a ragdoll, alternating between bone-crushing melee, skin-melting fire, and bone-crushing melee with skin-melting fire. Mako couldn't even get a hit in, and yet somehow he still felt like it had been worth it.

As Natsu vented his blinding rage on the teenager, he was almost glad Mako had dragon's blood because it meant he could hit him harder and a greater number of times.

Natsu got on top of him and punched him in the face more times than he should have. "What do you have to say now?"

"I love her."

If any other boy had uttered these words, Natsu would have been even more enraged, but he wasn't any other boy. When his daughter was little and Lisanna died, and kids at school kept calling her a crybaby, Mako beat them up more than was necessary and carried her home on his back. When she'd been sick, he always brought her homework over. He was a high-spirited, over-protective, and heavy-handed goofball any day of the week. Mako was actually one of Natsu's favorite people because he saw lot of himself in the kid.

Natsu rolled off and crossed his legs. "Fuck you."

Mako sat up and wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. "Sorry. I wanted to ask if it was okay, but I felt like it would go like this."

Natsu stared at him for a while. "If I tell you to stay away from my daughter and never touch her again, will that work?"

"No."

Natsu continued staring him down, and to his credit, he seemed oddly normal. "How long have you guys been sneaking around?"

Mako looked up. "Six months."

"How long have you been having sex?"

"Two."

"I didn't see a condom during your graceless dismount."

"She's on birth control."

Natsu frowned. "I don't know anything about my daughter."

Their man-to-man conversation was interrupted when Lila ran right between them and grabbed Mako by the neck.

"Baby, you're hurt! Daddy, how could you?!" she cried as she wiped blood from a cut on his forehead. "I love him!" And then, as if to illustrate the point to her father, she gave the teenager an open-mouthed kiss right in front of Natsu.

Mako and his daughter had nothing in common except the proximity of their ages and their stubbornness, so he knew threats and reason would be equally unfruitful. Judging for how good they were at sneaking around, he knew they'd just get better at it.

And he couldn't kill Mako because that would bring the wrath of the Thunder God into his life and his daughter would hate him.

Even if he could get rid of Mako, he knew his daughter would just get a different boyfriend, and he'd probably hate that guy more than the one sitting in front of him.

Natsu stood up and dusted himself off. "Lila, Mako. I've decided to be okay with this, but I have some conditions. First, you don't lie or sneak around anymore. Second, I would prefer you not, but if you guys are going to have sex anyway, keep it far away from me so I can still be in denial. Third, don't get pregnant."

When Mako finally went home the next morning, his great grandfather and father were the only ones awake. He passed through the kitchen to get a bottle of water, stitched, bruised, and burned, and the two older men followed him with their eyes.

Makarov asked, "Did something happen between last night and this morning?"

Mako sighed. "It's a long story."

"We're bored, and judging from your scent, you had sex and got the living hell beaten out of you. The life of a teenage boy indeed," Laxus answered, offering his son a cup of coffee. "Start at the beginning."

 _ **Please Review!**_

 _ **Special thanks to BizzyLizy and and Suchalonelylife for reviewing!**_


	11. Chapter 11

Makarov's condition declined as was expected. Everyone hated it, but no one could change it. The family was happy as always, but there was an undertow of impending grief that grew by the day.

The twins had successfully finished school, and Laxus believed they'd be gone constantly on jobs. Instead, they barely left and on most afternoons, piled onto Makarov's bed with their baby sister and amused their dying great grandfather with tales of their jobs and magic and their girlfriends. In some strange kind of way, their lives gave him life and strength because dying was turning out to be a surprisingly tiring struggle.

Six months after the the twins turned eighteen, he caught pneumonia.

And everyone who had a dragon's nose knew death was rapidly approaching.

They all knew it was coming, yet nobody felt ready for it.

Makarov's 'other' children from the guild visited to say their goodbyes and Laxus watched them come shaky and leave sobbing. There were so many in the guild that Makarov had taken under his wing and raised that there was constant foot traffic in and out. Natsu had cried like a baby over having to tell Makarov goodbye.

Ivan did not come around, but somehow, everyone expected that.

On the day he died, he spent a while talking to Laxus' wife and then asked to see everyone one-by-one, so she sent her eldest son in first.

Yuri sat in the chair next to the bed and reached for his great grandfather's hand. He realized as he made contact that Makarov's hands had cared for and nurtured him since he was born. His vaguest, earliest memories were of him walking unsteadily, holding onto Makarov's hands.

Makarov squeezed his hand, his breathing ragged. "Don't look like that. You're the level-headed one. The family needs you to stay just like that. You have a baby sister, and you have a crazy brother who gambles with his life more than he should. They both need you to protect them, just in different ways. You and Mako need each other, and I guess that's why you came into the world together.

"But don't be too cold, and don't forget to have fun. Being an uptight bastard won't get you anywhere. You'll end up bitter and angry. Laugh a little more. Party sometimes. Enjoy your youth because before you know it, you won't be young anymore. As for me, I had a good life, and I don't regret one day of it. In the end, make sure you can feel the same way about the choices that you make.

"Cherish your girlfriend. You have literally been in love with her since you were seven and you first saw her. You probably won't appreciate how special that is unless you fuck it up. So don't. Watch your parents sometimes. You can learn a lot from your father.

"Look after your family. Take care of your mom and your sister. Keep your dad company. He likes to talk at night, so have an ear. He's a human being too. Think you can handle that?"

Yuri nodded. "Yes, Gramps."

Yuri's bottom lip trembled, and Makarov felt tears sting his eyes.

"Gramps, I'm glad we got to be together. I'm going to miss you." Yuri kissed his forehead. "I love you."

Makarov smiled softly. "It's just goodbye for a little while."

Yuri came out and gestured for Mako, wiping tears off of his face.

The whole family was in the living room and seeing his upset, Mavis the two and a half year old toddler went to him and held her hands up to demand he pick her up, so Yuri did and sat down, holding her close. She snuggled up to him and kissed him on the cheek.

In the room, it was Mako's turn in the hot seat, and after a coughing fit, Makarov looked over him. "The most important advice I have for you is this _**don't die**_. You're so powerful, and if you keep growing, you'll be stronger than Natsu, your father, and Gildarts. You have a good temperament, except that you're crazy as all hell and you put your life on the line too much. It might not mean that much to you because you assume you'll always win, but your life is really precious to everyone else.

"Be smarter, take fewer risks. Listen to your brother, it'll save your life. Don't get arrogant because you're strong, because life has a funny way of correcting that and it's usually not pretty.

"Don't give Natsu such a heartache. His father died on him. Lisanna died on him twice. All he has is his daughter. I want you guys to get married someday—the idea makes me happy, but it's not good to divide a family so one person is left to live alone, especially not Natsu. So if that time comes, stay with him. Have some babies and let him love on them. It would save him, I think.

"Your path in magic is going to be more difficult, because you're stronger. Fate is going to come for you, but remember what's important. Family – blood and guild. Be strong. Stay kind. That's all."

Mako nodded and when he spoke, his voice cracked even though he tried to keep it steady. "Nothing is going to be the same. I really don't want this to happen."

"You have to learn that death isn't your enemy, but you don't need to flirt with it either. It's something you have to face, but when you do, face it with all your strength. Don't hate something you can't change. I'm just going on to the next step. Someday, you will too, and it better not be anytime soon or I'll kick your ass when you get there. You got that?"

He nodded and bent down to hug his great grandfather. "I got it, Gramps. I promise I won't let you down."

Makarov had another coughing fit that rendered him unconscious, and the doctor said that he might not regain consciousness again. Laxus decided he really didn't want anyone else to see when he died, so he sent everyone out that morning and went in Makarov's room to keep a silent vigil over his grandfather.

His breathing became more difficult, more shallow, and Laxus could hear his heart fall into an irregular pattern.

Makarov's eyes opened again, and his breathing stabilized a little. "Grandson of mine..."

Laxus attempted to be dignified, but he really couldn't be. His eyes watered as he squeezed his grandfather's hand. "Hey Gramps."

"We had a good time together, didn't we?"

His grandson nodded. "I was thinking just now about when I was little. My dad had just left again, and it was time for the Fantasia Parade. So we watched it together, but I couldn't see, so you put me up on your shoulders and made yourself huge. I felt like I was at the top of the world and as long as I had you, I didn't have to care about anything else."

Makarov saw him on the verge of breaking down into tears. "Enough, you damn crybaby. It's fine. Everything is fine. All good books have an ending, you know. This is the best ending any man could ever hope for. To die in peace, surrounded by a loving family, having done and accomplished all I desired in life."

It was difficult for him to talk, but dammit—this was their last talk and he wanted to say all he had to say. "There are letters in my desk. They're for Mavis on each of her birthdays for the next twenty years. I won't get to tell her how I feel in person, but I need her to know some things."

He coughed violently, and there was suddenly so much blood. He kept coughing as if he couldn't stop and Laxus helped him sit up to spit the blood out of his mouth. By the time it ended, Makarov was drained of the little strength he had left and Laxus eased him back onto the pillow.

Laxus could sense death as if it was lingering there in wait. And he realized his grandfather's heart had stopped.

"I'm so proud of you..." Makarov whispered weakly as his eyes closed.

He let out a long, slow breath as his body went completely limp. The fingers gripping Laxus' released, and for a minute, Laxus waited for another breath, or for the sound of his grandfather's heartbeat.

Makarov was dead.

The truth was that no matter how much time they spent together, it never would have been enough. Love hates separation, no matter how that separation comes. This form of separation was the worst, and as Laxus held onto Makarov's limp hand, he cried because he'd lost the only person who had loved him all of his life.

A thousand memories flashed in his mind of being a happy child, being an unhappy teen, being rebellious...Makarov had always been there. Even when Laxus was becoming a dad for the first time, his grandfather had been with him every step of the way. They'd watched his sons grow from little crying babies to men, had thousands of late night talks, done mountains of paperwork, and spent more time laughing and happy than they'd spent upset in the years prior.

The emotion was almost unbearable, so he sat there and cried quietly knowing he at least wanted to try and put on a brave face when he left that room and told his family.

Laxus told himself he had to get his shit together, so he wiped his face, got rid of the bloody towels that suggested the last few minutes were as rough as they were, covered his grandfather up to the neck, and steeled his resolve as he stepped out into the living room.

Everyone looked up at him, puffy-eyed and clearly devastated. It wasn't even necessary for him to say it, because they already knew. "Gramps is gone."

Grief shot through the room like a boomerang, and even though everyone save Mavis knew this moment had been coming, it still felt like a shock.

Laxus felt his wife's arms around him and he hugged her so tight, eyes clenched shut.

Yuri tightened his grip on his baby sister who had her head tucked under his chin, and he cried. She didn't know why everyone was sad, but it made her sad too, so they cried together.

Mako covered his face with his hands as he sat next to his brother and didn't move at all for what felt like a lifetime.

Laxus sat between his sons and felt relieved neither of them had been violently angry about the death. His sons had never incurred a serious loss before, so they were wildcards and Laxus had feared one or both would deal with their grief in the worst possible way. He was reminded again that his sons had grown into great men.

They grieved in their own ways, but the family stayed together.

There were still pragmatics, and Laxus had to leave then to tend to those things. Those things were upsetting to him in a way; it was hard to go into some place and ask people he barely knew to go to his house and take his grandfather away, yet it had to be done. Mirajane and Erza had already made most of the other necessary arrangements at his request.

Then he went to Fairy Tail, knowing everyone was waiting inside to hear any news.

When he walked in, the guild became dead silent and everyone looked at him as if hopeful he'd have anything else in the world to say. "Sorry everyone. Master Makarov has died. Be mindful of each other. It's a difficult time for most of us who he raised. He loved all his children, so look after one another. That's what he wanted."

His eyes cut over to Natsu, who was shaking as he sat at a table.

Laxus looked from one of Makarov's monsters to the next. Erza, Gray, Lucy, Levy, Gajeel...he could have gone on for a long time, but he realized as he looked around the room that his grandfather had an incalculable impact on so many lives. He knew that deep inside, at least a couple of them envied his blood relation because in the end, Makarov had chosen to be with his blood family first and foremost even though he loved all of them.

Even though he wanted to go home, he knew his family was going to be fine. It was the guild that had the most open sores, so he stayed for a while. He wasn't sure how to lead any of them through this, but he knew as he looked down that rivalries and other petty things were still churning, but now under the heavy weight of grief.

This was his real inheritance. His grandfather trusted him to look after and lead the people he'd spent his life raising and looking after.

Wendy broke down into sobs and Laxus gave her a hug.

And that single gesture tipped the atmosphere in favor of comfort over fighting. If Wendy could cry, why not them? And if Laxus could give a hug, well, certainly anyone else could.

It was a heavy blow, and it was like the very heart of Fairy Tail had broken.

Laxus reviewed funeral arrangements, and tended to the guild, signed a few urgent papers, and went back to his home. Mako was sound asleep in his mother's lap as she held him, and their daughter had just awoken and gone into the bedroom where Makarov had died.

Laxus stopped to kiss his wife and rub Mako's back for a minute. He felt like his son wasn't asleep but like he didn't want to be awake either, so he just kept his eyes closed.

In the bedroom, Yuri was remaking the bed, and the window was open in an attempt to get the smell of death out of the house. His eyes were sad, but his expression seemed calm.

"Where's Gramps?" the little one asked. For what she could remember of her life, Makarov spent most of the time in bed, so it was strange for him not to be there.

Yuri put the sheet down and picked her up. He really had no idea what to say, so he scrambled to find words to explain why he wasn't there. "Gramps went away. On a trip."

"Trip?"

"Gramps had been sick for a long time, so he went on a trip today to a place where he doesn't have to be sick anymore."

"Can I go?"

Yuri shook his head. "No, not on this trip. But, Mako and I are going on a trip and we're going to take you with us. We're going to go to the beach. We can make a sand castle, and play in the water, and go down this big slide. Just us kids, no Mom and Dad. We're going to go as soon as we have a special party for Gramps, okay?"

Mavis was excited by this and ran to her room, and Yuri noticed his father as she passed through.

"Kidnapping my kid?"

"Mako and I decided it's been really heavy around here for a long time. We are sending you and mom on a vacation after the funeral, and then we're going to go hit the beach. You've looked really tired for a whole year, Dad, so we figured once it was over, you deserved a break from having to be everything to everybody. You trust us with Mavis, right?"

Laxus looked thoughtfully at his oldest son. He'd felt the weight of the world in a very real way over the past year or so, but he always had to maintain. His sons had even recognized the pressure, and he was truly grateful they wanted to help him decompress. And trust them with a toddler?

Yuri and Mako adored their sister and had carried her around so much as an infant that Laxus wasn't sure she'd ever learn how to walk. The boys knew her imaginary friends and the names of her stuffed animals and played with her often. It had only been a couple of days since he'd come home to find his two s-class dragon sons having a tea party.

"I'd trust you if you said you wanted to take Mavis to see an active volcano. Your mom and I really appreciate you two. Your mom got a little overwhelmed taking care of Gramps sometimes with the bathing and medicine and cleaning—it wasn't a terrible way to go, but it wasn't pretty either. And then I wasn't even home all the time and had a whole fucking guild pulling on me. Making dinner, cleaning up, taking care of your sister...that stuff mattered more than you even know. You're young, you just made s-class, you could be doing a lot of other things," he said.

Yuri finished making the bed. "Family first, right? Besides, we have our whole lives. We only had a little time left with Gramps. We can go out and fight anytime, but we couldn't get more time with him."

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Laxus could remember his son's troubled phase. The yelling, cursing, and rebelliousness had been frustrating to a point he almost couldn't stand, but he'd pulled through.

Alzack and Bisca brought food over, and the family half-ate a meal mostly in silence that night. They all took turns starting at the empty chair at the end of the table. They'd had countless meals together as a family, for years and years, and during nearly every one, Makarov sat at the end of the table and watched the antics of the family—the boys, Laxus and his wife, Laxus fussing at his sons, their mother spoiling them—and he'd speak now and then. For the most part, he'd watched over them all along.

After dinner, they spent half the night telling stories about Makarov. Laxus told his sons all about things that happened before they were born, and the boys shared some of their own experiences with their grandfather, and his wife told them how she and Makarov used to sit and laugh at all the crazy things that happened in a dragon's nest.

They laughed, they cried, and then they separated.

Laxus and his wife bathed Mavis and read her a story before bed, and when his wife went to check on their sons, she found neither was home.

"Do you know where they are?" she asked worriedly.

Their father nodded. "A man gets to a certain age and he doesn't want his mother to hold him when he's sad-not all the time at least."

"Do you need me to hold you at least?"

"Always."

Laxus had sex until he passed out, doubting sleep was going to come any other way, and was somehow surprised to wake up the next morning and the sun was shining, birds were singing, and life went on as if nothing had changed.

He showered and dressed, and prepared for a different morning routine. While his grandfather was sick, he'd still have coffee with him, but sometimes it was in Makarov's room.

When he came in the kitchen, he found his sons sitting at the table with coffee. He couldn't decide whether he should cry or smile at them. His wife was cooking breakfast, and his daughter came out of her room in her pajamas and climbed into his lap, half-asleep.

Laxus felt like he had been taking care of his family, but suddenly he knew his family was taking care of him.

 _ **Please Review!**_

 _ **Special thanks to BizzyLizy and Such a lonely life for reviewing!**_


	12. Chapter 12

**Epilogue**

 _Five Years Later..._

They were all on holiday at a resort on the beach.

There were certain anxieties Laxus and his wife had faced as their sons grew up and began to live their own lives, but one thing they learned about the twins is that they were so deeply connected as a family that they stayed close.

Neither of them lived with their parents and they both had wives, but they visited so often it still felt like they were around most of the time. Sometimes they would all get together and eat, and other times his sons would just drop in because they missed the smell of their childhood home and their parents.

Mavis bounced around and spent a lot of time at her brothers' homes. The three siblings were insanely close for the age gap they had. For the most part, she stayed close to her parents though, being the only child left at home with older parents who were more than happy to spoil her absolutely to death.

Laxus was actually really proud of how his family had developed.

It was early in the morning, and knowing his wife wanted to sleep in, Laxus got dressed in some swim trunks and a t-shirt and decided to see if he could find any of his fairly extensive family awake. Their seven-year-old daughter was sleeping in the other room in their suite, and he peeked in on her to confirm she was still out.

Mavis was a daddy's girl in every sense of the word. They were inseparable, but she was a cranky grump in the morning and enjoyed sleeping in. Like Lila Dragneel—wait, _Dreyar—_ he reminded himself, she'd been born without the ability to use magic, which caused her to be a somewhat normal kid. Mostly. She had her moments.

Laxus went by Yuri and Katie's room and found a do not disturb sign hanging on the door and no signs of life. They'd been married for two years, and they still did everything together. He'd been surprised when Yuri told him they wanted to get married, but it made sense and they were happy.

There was stirring in Mako's room and he knocked on the door and Lila answered.

"Morning."

"Morning," she said, a little uneasiness in her voice. "I think Mako already got up and went to go do something."

These two? Mako and Lila. Lila went to university in Hargeon, and two had a mostly terrible long-distance relationship during that time. The situation forced them both to grow up a lot, trust one another, and be patient. Things smoothed over when she came home and four months prior, they'd run off and eloped, which agitated all the parents involved to no end.

He wondered if they'd been at odds and went to go search for his son, who was sitting on the beach in his swim trunks. Mako looked pensive, and Laxus suspected he was right about them fighting.

"Son."

"Hey Dad."

"Everything okay?"

Mako nodded. "Yeah."

Laxus sat down next to him and watched him for a while. It was surreal to see his little boys as adults sometimes, because sometimes he couldn't help but think of how tiny they were when they were little boys. It was interesting but when they were toddlers and their personalities were developing, he would often imagine what they'd be like when they were grown and his predictions weren't wrong.

Yuri was sweet and calm when he was little and then growing up he went through this evolution of sorts and somehow settled right back into those mannerisms once he became mature.

Mako had changed very little since the beginning of his life. His personality was always the same. He didn't have phases, he was simply only always himself.

They were both monogamous by nature, and even though some people made a fuss about them getting married young, or before they'd been with other women, he was happy with them. He glad they didn't party and sleep around and take part in the corrupt wizard's lifestyle. They were faithful, loyal, and kind, and what they wanted for themselves was what they had grown up with—a good marriage and a peaceful home.

"You guys get into a fight?"

"No."

Laxus elbowed him. "Then what's the problem? It's so weird to see you look that serious."

Mako watched the waves splashing on his feet. "Dad..."

"What is it?"

He looked up at his father. "Well..."

"Out with it already, son."

Mako quietly said, "Dad, Lila's pregnant."

Laxus' brows rose, and for a minute, he didn't say anything. It was a surprise, but at the same time, it really wasn't. His sons were married, in their twenties, and were both good with kids. This moment had been coming for a while and he and his wife had a bet going about which one of their sons would plunge into the world of parenthood first.

He put a hand on his son's shoulder. "Congratulations, Son. You okay?"

"Kind of surprised? It's amazing though. She keeps throwing up, so I don't know what to do. She's annoyed with me right now," he admitted.

Laxus stood up and put on his shoes. "Come with me."

The two men walked together and talked about fatherhood. "Dad, were you scared?"

"I was terrified. But I felt like I had to be brave for your mom, because she was scared too. It's a process for a woman to become a mother. They go through a lot," he answered.

His son smirked a little. "When I think that she's going to have my baby and it's so amazing to me."

"That never gets old. Sometimes I look at you guys and it's still magical."

Mako followed his father to the drug store a block away and carried a little red basket. His father threw different things in—ginger tea, peppermints, crackers, lemons, and club soda. He gave his son a rundown on morning sickness as a whole, and what to do and what not to do, and how to not get kicked out of the bedroom at six in the morning for asking stupid questions (which had been Mako's day so far).

Bonding moments were becoming few and farther between as his sons grew older, but Mako listened intently to every word that came out of his father's mouth, because he wanted to take good care of his wife and keep her happy the same way his father did for his mother.

They were walking back to the resort when Mako said, "I just realized something."

"Hm?"

"You're going to be Gramps now."

Laxus wasn't sure why it hurt for a split second, but it did. He missed his grandfather sorely, even after years, and there were times he went passed his still-empty bedroom and reflected on the huge impact he'd had on all their lives.

When they got back, Mako was about to tend to his pregnant wife when they stopped in the dining room to get some food he could take up to Lila, only to find she'd recovered and was down in the dining room with the rest of the women in the family, chattering a thousand miles an hour with a hand on her belly.

As soon as they approached, Mako got a huge hug from his over-excited mother and they sat down.

The whole family ended up down at the beach and the girls tossed a ball around with while Laxus and his sons participated in a game his wife called the 'Let's try to drown each other' game. Then they had a swimming competition, then they had a diving competition, and the twins came to the awful conclusion that they couldn't beat their father at anything.

The three were pretty far from the shore when they finally gave up.

"How can you be that old and be in such good shape?" Mako complained.

Laxus ducked under the water and pulled him down, and when they came back up he said, "I'll go easy on you since you're going to have a kid. Yuri gets no mercy."

Yuri sank down to his nose for a minute and then said, "I don't need mercy from the likes of a grandfather."

Mako watched his brother and father disappear under the water for quite a while before Yuri came up gasping for air.

He heard a little splash and Mavis surfaced and climbed on his back. "You're a really good swimmer, Mavis."

"Where's daddy?" she asked.

Yuri appeared for a split second for air. "Dad is showing Yuri something."

Yuri swam to the surface gasping and Mavis swam over to him. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," he grumbled as she climbed onto his back. "H-hey don't..."

Mavis screamed when Yuri was suddenly airborne from their father throwing Yuri into the air, and her brother grabbed her and pinched her nose as they fell back in the water before kicking to the top.

Laxus was panicked when he saw his daughter had joined the group, but Yuri safely brought a very irate little girl to the surface. "Sorry, Baby."

"You're mean!"

Laxus splashed her. "That's what you get for siding with the enemy."

She splashed him, he splashed her back, and Laxus found himself in a three-on-one splash war with his offspring.

"You're on their side, really?"

Mavis kicked water at him. "Always!"

Laxus reached out to flick the end of her nose and she bit his finger. "Feisty..."

As a father, he was pleased with his daughter being a little rough. She was a girly-girl for sure, but she had a wild side as well and when it manifested, it was usually serious. Her teachers who had the displeasure of having her brothers in their classes years before called this "having a Dreyar moment."

The boys swam in to spend time with their wives, leaving Laxus and his baby out in the water.

She treaded water in front of him. "Daddy..."

"Hm?"

"You're the best."

Laxus grinned at her. "This is why you're my favorite. You're not going to grow up and get married and leave me, right?"

Mavis very seriously answered, "Probably."

He gave her a pat on the head and then pushed her underwater.

When she came back up, he asked, "You're not going to grow up and get married and leave, right?"

"Nope."

"Good girl."

Mavis pointed at some rough-looking waves. "Let's go over there."

"Hold on."

She held onto his neck and then he felt a prickling pull at his back hair.

"Ow?"

"You have a hairy back, Daddy."

Laxus gave her a little glare but indulged her anyway, swimming in the rough water so she could use his back as a surf board. There really wasn't much she asked for that he wasn't willing to do, and when she'd thoroughly exhausted him, he swim back to the shore at sunset where she promptly fell asleep and required him to carry her up to their room.

When he went inside and got on the elevator, he saw his son Yuri approaching holding a little brown paper bag and stopped the door with his foot. Yuri had such tunnel vision it took him a few seconds to realize his father was on the elevator with him.

Laxus turned and inadvertently swung Mavis, and her foot knocked the bag out of his hand and a pregnancy test fell on the floor.

Yuri flinched. "I can explain..."

"Both of you, huh?"

"We are twins, Dad."

"You want to talk?"

Yuri picked up the test. "Dad, I need to do this like... _right now_ or I'm going to drop dead from a stroke."

"Come by later then," he said.

His oldest nodded. "Thanks, Dad."

Laxus and his son went separate ways and he carried his daughter in to their suite. "Babe, Mavis passed out stinking like seaweed. Sorry."

"You two..." she took the baby. " _You_ stink like seaweed too."

He showered in the suite's other bathroom while he knew Mavis was probably being a cranky little brat about having a bath while she was tired.

Mavis was still whining when he got out of the shower and her mother was more or less wrestling her into her little pink bunny pajamas. Mother-daughter time was a source of great amusement for Laxus because it reminded him of when the boys were little and they'd do anything to make their mother happy and do anything to drive him crazy. They were close and they loved to spend time together doing girly things, but their daughter's will was a force to be reckoned with.

They put her to bed knowing she'd probably wake up hungry in a couple of hours from not eating dinner.

"Honestly, Laxus..."

"Sorry."

They ordered room service for dinner, with something for their cranky little baby, and while they were waiting, Laxus said, "I ran into Yuri on the elevator. He had a pregnancy test."

"Him too?!"

Laxus sat on the edge of the bed. "I can't believe they did this at the same time."

"It would be weirder if they didn't. They've been doing everything together since before they were born, intentional or not," she answered.

His wife sat next to him and he reached for her hand. "What's wrong?"

"Mako pointed out that I'd be Gramps..."

When she leaned her head on him, he added, "Gramps would have loved to be around today. Pick on Mavis, laugh at the boys, harass their wives about having babies...but I guess no matter much we'd had with him, it never would have seemed like enough."

XXX

 **Some years later...**

Laxus stood in front of the tombstone.

It was getting weathered, like the others in the cemetery that belonged to people no one really cared about anymore. That bothered him, but age whittled away at everything. It had worn on him over the years, turning his hair silver and causing lines to form on his face.

His father was buried next to Makarov, but Laxus never had anything to say there. He and Ivan had said all they needed to say.

He put the flowers and whiskey down at Makarov's grave. "Sorry I don't come around.

"So...let's see. I just turned fifty-five. Getting a little bit old. It's not so bad. The boys are thirty-two now. Mavis is seventeen. I used to be worried about what would happen when they all moved out, but I have grandkids.

"There are six of them. _**Six**_ _._ They're all boys between two and nine. They all stay at my house every Friday night and I always have Yuri's kids when he and Katie are on a job, so my house stays full of crazy little boys. We thought two was bad...you can't imagine six little dragons in one place. They love to tackle me when I come home from the guild and see if they can bring me down, so the first thing that happens when I come in the door is six little crazy boys jump on me and shout 'Gramps!' which took some getting used to.

"Yuri's my partner. The older he gets, the more everyone looks up to him, and when I'm gone on a trip, they look to him. Being a dad has taught him a lot about how to take care of people, so maybe someday I'll retire and he can take care of the guild. He's a really good father. Calm, patient, willing to go a lot further than most, which is good because his oldest son is just like him. He comes over and drinks with me sometimes and tells me about his kids and wife.

"Mako was inducted into the wizard saints last year. He's probably more ferocious than you imagined he'd be. He's a monster's monster, but then he steps off the battle field and he's still kind of goofy and sweet. He got a little out of hand last year when we lost a guild member. It was a little scary, even for me to watch. He and Lila are just the most stupidly in love couple in the world. Natsu loves those kids, and one of them looks like me but breathes fire like him.

"Mavis. You didn't really get to know Mavis, but she's my favorite. She's really a devil in her own little way. She's gorgeous, and so smart and charismatic. She's going to Crocus to study international relations this fall.

"She has a boyfriend but I can't beat him up because he's the crown prince of Fiore—it's my fault for bringing her to the Grand Magic Games ball. He's a nice kid, but I still want to snap his neck sometimes. The Magic Council is absolutely terrified that the future Queen of Fiore, who sits above them, would have Dreyar blood flowing through her veins.

"Helena and I have been together for thirty-four years. That's a long time to be with one person, but I'm glad. I like watching her get older for some reason, and knowing her face is wrinkled like it is because she's spent so much time smiling. She's still chasing little dragons all over the place, keeping them fed and clean and happy. She likes when they spend the night and then try to get in our bed the next morning. Then she feeds them and I drink coffee and watch them run around. I like the mornings where it's quiet, but it's going to be weird when Mavis leaves this fall. We haven't been alone in the house in thirty-two years.

"Fairy Tail...Fairy Tail is good. No shortage of power or love. You'd be happy to see the guild now, I think. There's a lot of young people again. We're still causing too much property damage but the Council hasn't given us a hard time because they're scared of a teenage girl.

"Everybody is good. Your guild kids are all getting kind of old, so we're starting to take it a little easy. Gildarts retired. Natsu and I went on a 100-year quest and kicked some pretty serious ass last year. We all miss you. People talk about you all the time. The kids in the guild know all about you.

"But the truth is, nothing is the same without you. I miss staying up and having a drink with you at night, and asking you questions and trying to learn. I wish I'd had enough sense to ask more questions, because all kinds of things have happened and I'd say to myself, 'I wish I knew what Gramps would say.' I wish I'd listened more when I was young. I wish I'd been able to introduce my first grandson to you.

"I wish you could see what it's like at our house...six grandsons, the twins and their wives, Mavis, and my wife and I. That's thirteen people. We're close and everyone loves everyone else and we stick together. It's a well-known rule in Magnolia that if you mess with one Dreyar you get the whole family.

"And sometimes I look at everyone and I remember when I was little and the Dreyar family was just you and me sitting in your apartment, eating scrambled eggs, and talking about magic."

Laxus looked over at Ivan's tombstone. "I don't know if you guys are okay on the other side or not. I wasn't sure if it was okay to bury him here. I was surprised when I found out. But I know you always wanted him to be close, so I guess this was the best I could do. I hope it all worked out where you guys are, and that things that happen here don't matter so much."

He took a step back. "Gramps, I miss you. Always."

 **-End**

AN: I loved writing this story. I cried.

Special thanks to BizzyLizy for reviewing!


End file.
